Wild Boot
by Rarstarr
Summary: The Tendo clan have run Mainframe since the first power-on. Unfortunately times are tough. Two viruses have invaded the system, most of the sprites have been defeated, and they're losing games left right and center. Thankfully Soun Tendo has a solution.
1. v 1,1

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.1: The Sheriff's a w--*dong*!

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

The city of Mainframe was hard pressed to survive. With the loss of the sister city, and the attack of the two viruses, cycles were hard. The Tendos, the last four of the original sprites of Mainframe, tried to keep the city processing. However it was a steep gradient battle and it was quickly realised that help was needed from outside the system.

That help was about to arrive.

*****

Nabiki, Indexer of Mainframe and the Tendo second daughter, was a serious sprite. She always wore a suit that nicely offset her green skin. Every morning she checked to be sure her bitmap was in perfect order and that her Icon was in its usual place on her right arm. She was an important person in Mainframe, her businesses owned most of the property and if she didn't outright run it, she at least had a major part of the sharing rights.

She was holding a meeting with some of her more important clients, so was surprised when a vid window popped up beside her. She had altered her contact status to be unavailable so only two people could contact her and Kasumi wouldn't unless there was an emergency.

The window showed her father, looking far too pleased with himself.

"Yes father?" Nabiki asked through slitted eyes.

"You must come to the Com room immediately, someone is about to arrive that I want you to meet!" their father exclaimed.

Nabiki scowled. "I'm too busy processing here to break procedure and see you father."

"But it is urgent! I have at last found a solution to our problem!"

"Oh, this I must see," Nabiki muttered. She turned to the binomes around the table before her. "I'm sorry gentlenomes, I must leave, this is very important." They grumbled and coughed out their agreement. Nabiki turned back to the vid window. "I'll be there in a nanosecond."

*****

Soun, patriarch of the Tendo clan and Mainframe's , was a tall noble looking sprite. Green skinned like his daughters he habitually wore a gi. He sat at his desk in the Principal Office.

The vid window closed and he immediately accessed another one. It popped into existence before her, but instead of a sprite or binome, the words "access denied, file in use" appeared.

"Where is that girl?" Soun muttered.

His oldest daughter, Kasumi, was downloading a readme file at the filing system. She had a quiet subdued beauty about her. She had spent a lot of time helping her father run the Principal Office, and it had gotten to the point where he was doing very little and she was running the system, with the help of her two sisters. Her icon sat in the centre of her chest.

"Do you mean Akane, father?" Kasumi asked, he voice sweet and soft as always.

"Yes, I can't seem to contact her."

"Oh, she's in a game cube in sector 100101," the girl sprite informed him. "She shouldn't take much longer."

"Well, that explains ... IN A GAME CUBE?!"

*****

The arena was well lit, the audience little more than a filled in blur. In the centre a pair of one binomes, dressed as referees, pushed a massive set of weights into position.

In the announcer's box a zero and a one binome sat staring at the down at the stage.

"Well Jim, the user really stuffed up that one, didn't he?" the one asked in an excited whisper.

"Yes Al, he did. That leaves the game open to the Mainframe team," the zero replied.

A sprite stepped out onto the stage. She was greened skinned, like her sisters and father. The game had outfitted her in a gi, which was fine by her, she'd been wearing one before rebooting in the game. Her Icon hung on a chain around her neck and her black hair was cut into a boyish trim.

"Folks, it looks like Akane, Mainframe's staunchest defender, is stepping up to do the snatch and jerk," Jim whispered excitedly.

"You can feel the tension," Al commented quietly.

"Of course, if Akane can do this then the Mainframe team will win the game," Jim replied quietly.

"Jim, why are we whispering?" Al asked in a whisper.

"I have no idea, Al," Jim replied in an equally quiet voice.

Akane gave the commentator's box an irritated look. How could those two joke at a time like this? She went back to looking at the barbell. The user had failed to hold this weight and if she could then the user would lose, and they wouldn't be nullified.

She stepped forward and dusted her hands off. Squatting down, she grabbed the bar. She paused for a few seconds to take a few deep breaths, and then she jerked the weights up onto her chest. Her face bulged with the effort.

"Oh, that was good, wasn't it Jim?"

"Yes Al, but the User got past this point."

Akane pushed the weight up, holding it above her head. Her face was starting to darken with the effort.

"Now if she can just hold it, she can beat the User, isn't that right Al?"

"That's right Jim."

Akane held the weight above her head. She was not going to fail. She was not. A few nanos passed, then the buzzer sounded and Akane threw the weights crashing to the ground. The crowd and the binomes cheered.

"Game Over," the calm voice of the computer announced.

The purple floor shot past their heads as the game cube retreated back into the sky. Immediately a vid window popped open next to Akane.

*****

The four Tendos were standing in a large room in the Principal Office. A large complex machine involving flashing lights and sparking wires dominated the room. A pair of large electrodes pointed to a space above a disc on the floor.

"YOU DECIDED WHAT?!" Akane screeched.

Soun immediately started weeping. "My daughter's yelling at me," he sobbed.

Kasumi put a comforting arm around him. "She's just upset, daddy. You really should have asked before forming a permanent linkage with this Ranma Saotome for one of us."

Soun immediately stopped weeping. "We made the arrangements many megacycles ago. When Genma contacted me, I saw it as a chance to save our system."

"He's a Guardian, bet he's handsome," Nabiki mused.

"I hope he has a high version, I prefer older men," Kasumi commented.

"Are you two just going to accept this?!" Akane demanded of her sister.

"Its for the good of the system Akane," Kasumi pointed out.

Akane fumed. "But --"

"Incoming com signal. Initiating rt/st handshake," the computer announced with a calm voice and impeccable timing. The lights on the large machine started flickering. The four Tendos immediately turned as power started flickering across the electrodes.

Suddenly the lights dimmed. "War-war-warning, power-er-er s-s-surge detec-tec-tected," the computer announced, its voice warped.

"What the?" Soun cried, cringing back in shock.

"Han-han-handsha-sha-shaking com-complete. Con-con-connection ini-initiated."

Two beams shot from the electrodes to strike the space above the dish. A silver sphere formed, but immediately started twisting out of shape.

"Oh dear," cried Kasumi. "If they attempt to come through while the portal is unstable their data structures will be randomised."

Akane glared at her sister. Somehow the way she said it made it sound so much less lethal than it was.

Soun dashed over to the control panel and started madly pushing buttons. "Nothing I do is working, the portal is becoming more unstable by the nanosecond! Someone do something!"

Akane and Nabiki looked at each other helplessly, it wasn't in their format. Kasumi though knew exactly what to do. Pulling her metal broom out from behind her back she strode purposely towards the machine. She swung the broom back and then with an almighty heave struck the machine.

"Power restored. Initiating download," the computer declared as the lights came back up and the sphere reformed.

Kasumi turned to her family, who were staring at her in open-faced surprise. She shrugged. "It just needed a woman's touch."

"Download initiated," the computer informed them.

The Tendos turned to watch the surface of the sphere rippled. Imagine their surprise when the sprite that emerged from the portal was a panda, carrying another sprite over its shoulder.

"Download complete, closing com link," the computer anounced.

"Daddy, who are they?" Kasumi asked.

The Panda dumped the other sprite to its feet. The sprite was a girl, that much was obvious, about as tall as Akane. Her skin was blue and the hair on her head was a metallic red. She wore a Guardian uniform with her Icon on her right breast.

The strange girl sprite stood, one hand scratching the back on her head. "Hi, ah, I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."

"Daddy," Nabiki commented dryly, "he is a she."

*****

After Ranma's surprising arrival, Akane had invited Ranma to a game of Blaster Combat in the game simulation room. Blaster Combat was a fairly simple game, but great for working on game processing timing. The two combatants were given blasters, which they shot at each other until they hit. There were various objects to hide behind and when you played it in the game cube there were various power-ups you could pick up.

Akane was having a surprising hard time trying to hit Ranma. He didn't fire back, but even her best shots fell short as the girl dodged out of the way. She paused in firing for a moment, ducking back into shelter. No sounds came from the other side so Akane leapt out and fired at ... nothing. Ranma had vanished.

"Where did she go?" Akane wondered aloud. Suddenly she felt someone tap something on her head.

Looking up she found Ranma lying atop her shelter, lazily point her gun at Akane. "Zap," she said simply.

Akane glared at Ranma for a few seconds. Then smiled and laughed. "You were lucky," she accused.

Ranma shrugged and jumped down. "You should move more."

Akane looked at her. "I suppose you're right."

*****

Kasumi poked her head into the room in which Ranma was checking through a pack of equipment. The younger sprite looked up as she entered.

"The static shower is free Ranma," Kasumi announced. "You'd better use it before it gets taken over again."

"Ah, haha, right, thanks Kasumi," Ranma replied.

*****

Ranma stopped the shower and stood there thinking. He wondered how the Tendos would process this development. He mulled over his life with his father, the travelling Guardian inspector. He thought about the accident. He thought of old friends long gone.

'Well, I suppose I'd better go and face the MIDI,' he thought, pushing open the shower door, on a rather surprised and naked Akane.

The pair stared at each other for a few seconds. Akane, shaking, turned, reactivated her clothes and stepped out of the bathroom. Ranma watched her go, confused.

Outside Akane stood in front of the door for a few nanoseconds. She then screamed. By the time Nabiki and Kasumi caught up with her she had gone to the armoury and was staggering through the halls of the Principal office carrying a bomb ten times her size.

"Ah, Akane, what's that for?" Nabiki asked, eying the bomb warily.

"The pervert in the shower!" Akane snapped.

"Don't you think that's a little, ah, excessive?" Nabiki inquired.

"That's funny, Ranma was just in the shower," Kasumi murmured to herself.

The clearing of a throat attracted the sisters' attention. They turned to find a male sprite standing in the corridor. He was blue with black hair in the same ponytail style as Ranma. He wore what looked like Ranma's uniform.

"Ah, I'm Ranma Saotome, sorry about this."

*****

Soun stood behind his desk. Another old sprite, blue like Ranma only rotund. He also wore a Guardian Uniform. The three Tendo sisters and Ranma stood in a semicircle around them.

"I'll go over this one more time," Soun told them. "This is my old friend Genma Saotome," he indicates the large man, "and his son..."

"Ranma Saotome," Ranma finished.

"But, Ranma was a girl," Nabiki commented.

"Ah yes, how to explain," said Genma squeezing the bridge of his nose. "I know!" He suddenly tosses a small sphere at Ranma. The sphere explodes on impact, releasing jagged lighting at Ranma.

"And now he's a girl," Kasumi stated, for it was so.

"And I can change back if I process some stable energy, like in the static shower or slow food," Ranma added.

"Ah, good, then the linkage can proceed." Soun steps up and slaps Ranma on the back. "Ranma my lad, ah lass, these are my three daughters. Kasumi nineteen megacycles, Nabiki seventeen megacycles, and Akane sixteen megacycles. Pick one and she and you will be linked."

"Oh, he wants Akane," Kasumi immediately announced.

"Yes, Akane's the one for him," Nabiki added.

"Are you totally random?! Why would I want to marry that corrupted sprite!" Akane cried.

"Hey! Its not my fault!" Ranma yelled in response.

"It looks like they're well interfaced already," commented Soun in the background.

"Well who's fault is it then?!" Akane demanded.

"His!" Ranma pointed at his father. All eyes turned towards large Guardian.

Genma blink a few times, pulled out another sphere and which detonated, turning him into a panda. A window popped up above him reading "just a cute cuddly panda." Everyone turned back to Ranma.

"Want to explain this Ranma?" Nabiki asked.

Ranma sighed. "It all happened in a system called Jusenkyo. We were fixing a tear that had gotten lodged in the image archive..."

*****

The white light from the tear cast strange shadows about the large domed room. All the lights had been powered down and most of the windows were dull and lifeless. Genma and Ranma were inspecting a tear sitting in the centre of a clump of windows. Behind them, in the shadows, a pair of sprites could just be seen working at a series of controls.

"We must be very careful boy," Genma advised. "A mistake here could damage the archive."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "I know pop, I have fixed tears before."

Genma growled at him and raised his arm to point at the tear. On his arm is a Guardian key tool. "Patch, fix," he ordered.

The key tool extended its disc, turned it towards the tear, then morphed into a cone. Gold hoops shot out for the key tool to encircle the tear.

Ranma raised his arm before him. "Glitch, scanner," he told his own key tool. The disc expanded to show a number of colour bars. The tear was slowly shrinking when Glitch started beeping. "Pop, you're going to fast."

Genma snorted. "I know what I'm doing boy."

"I'm serious pop." Ranma was frowning at Glitch, who's beeping was getting faster.

"Listen--"

The tear exploded. Windows went flying everywhere. One struck Ranma, knocking him to the ground, a second collided with Genma, two more tumbled past them into the shadows.

Darkness descended on the room. A pair of glowing white eyes got up off the floor. "Pop, are you all right?" asked Ranma's female voice. "Hey, what's wrong with my voice?"

Another pair of eyes raised themselves from the floor. "Grwf?" growled a strange voice.

"Pop is that you?" Ranma asked again.

The lights came up, revealing Ranma, now female, and a large Panda. Ranma looked down herself, then over to the panda, then back herself. She turned away and screamed in shock.

*****

"... and ever since then, when there's a power discharge near us we morph," Ranma finished.

The Tendos all looked scornfully at the "cute cuddly panda".

Ranma grabbed the panda. "Come on Pop, lets go change." He dragged his father from the room.

*****

"Hello, Kasumi?" Ranma stepped into the entry hall of the Principal Office. A few moments later Kasumi swept into view.

"Oh, hello Ranma, nice to see you again. I'm afraid Akane isn't here right now." Kasumi gave him her best smile.

Ranma scratched the back of his head. "Aha, yeah, I, ah, didn't come to see her. Have you seen pop, he said he was visiting your father."

Kasumi frowned. "I haven't seen them in a while. They were near the com room last time I saw them."

"The com room?!" Ranma cried, and took off at a dash.

Ranma skidded to a halt in the com room. Nothing seemed out of place. The control panel, the com port, the PDA sitting on the floor...

"Who left that there?" Kasumi asked, pointing at the PDA lying on the ground in front of the dish. Okay, maybe something was out of place.

Ranma strode over and snatched it up. He tapped the scrolled through the message on its display. As he read his frown deepened to scowl. "That cowardly old fool! If I ever get my hands on him I'll pull him apart bit by bit!" he cried to the heavens.

Kasumi, at the control panel for the portal generator, looked at him in shock. "Ranma, what's processing?"

"Our fathers have run off to the supercomputer, leaving us to look after Mainframe!!"

"Oh, my."


	2. v 1,2

Wild Boot

By David Farr

v 1.2: A Pig in a Poke

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission. Distrubtion is allow as long as no charge is involved and the file is unchanged. Thanks to my two prereaders, Jin and David Johnston.

*****

The window showed a female Ranma dragging a panda bear through the streets of Mainframe. The scene was still and darkened, with the word "paused" floating in the center.

The room in which the window floated was large and dark. The floor consisted of a set of metal mesh platforms and catwalks lined with metallic railings. Machines rose from the darkness past the edge of the floor and continued up to fade out of view as they reached towards the roof.

Standing before the window was Kuno, one of the two viruses that had invaded the system. A superior sneer seemed to be almost permanently set on his face; he stood with what would be a noble bearing if he didn't appear so evil. His robes and skin were both a dark blue and in one hand he casually held a glowing sword.

"Strength, beauty. I am indeed blessed to have one such as her grace my system." He turned from the window. "Gosunkugi, Sasuke!"

Two robots entered, both jet black. They were almost identical to one another except that one was twice as tall as the other. Both rolled around on a sphere where their feet should have been and as they approached their oversized hands snapped in comic salute. Their heads were domes with two large arcs surrounding their white eyes. On their torsos was a section of white, which flashed black as they spoke.

"Sasuke online," the shorter robot announced.

"And Gosunkugi too," the larger one sighed.

"Ah, good. I wish to know more about this new sprite!" Kuno pointed at the window.

Gosunkugi and Sasuke rolled forward to peer at the window.

"Its a panda," Sasuke announced.

"Not that one, the female!" Kuno roared.

"She's beautiful," Gosunkugi sighed.

"GO!" Kuno yelled.

The two robots pulled away from window and cruisefd over to the elevator. Sasuke slammed the controls and the elevator shot downwards. Sasuke and Gosunkugi hovered in mid air for a moment blinking before gravity remembered them. The two robots disappeared into the inky depths and moments later a crash echoed throughout the Tor.

Kuno groaned, then turned away. He strode purposefully to the edge of the platform and leapt off. Calmly he fell almost the height of the Tor, landing before a massive vault door. A sign taking up most the door announced "No Unauthorized Access. Kuno's Vault!" Beneath it in an extremely small font on an extremely small sign were the words: "If you can read this, you don't need glasses."

The massive door swung open as Kuno approached revealing a darkened chamber. A small balcony jutted out from the wall beneath the door, and was the only floor in the room. Kuno stalked across to the control panel on the balcony's railing. He hit a control, then turned to watch the vault door close behind him. Another button was pressed and windows started popping into existence around the balcony.

Window after window opened, each showed a different scene of Akane. There were thousands of them, including shots of her in skimpy outfits. "I have not forsaken you my dear. I will have you both, even if I have to infect all of Mainframe." Kuno threw back his head and laughed evilly. "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!"

*****

Kasumi looked at Akane, then Nabiki standing about her in their father's private office. Soun had decorated the room with bitmaps and jpegs of ornate weapons and armour. In fact he'd constructed a theme for the room, including a desktop image of a collection of beautiful jeweled daggers. Nabiki had made a tidy profit copy and pasting it to other binomes.

"Ranma and I found this in the com room," Kasumi explained, holding up a PDA. "It's from father. There's also a message for Ranma from his father, but he's already downloaded that."

"What is it Kasumi?" Akane asked.

"Well, its bad news," Kasumi started.

"Don't bother summarizing it Kasumi, just upload it to us," Nabiki instructed. "I really don't have the time slices to listen to it twice."

Kasumi nodded. "Okay." She touched the PDA and a three-dimensional image of their father formed standing on the device.

"My dearest daughters," the image started. "After spending many cycles watching you three grow, I have decided that it is now best to leave the continued operation of Mainframe to your capable functions. This is not something I do lightly, or without thought. It is time for you three to experience run time on your own, and the only way to do that is for me to leave you alone.

"Look to each other and the other sprites for aid, especially Ranma. He has functions that none of you were coded with. I wish you luck and happiness. Function well my daughters." The image faded out.

"HOW DARE HE?!" demanded Akane.

"You checked to see if he did in fact leave, of course," Nabiki stated.

Kasumi gave a quick nod. "The com system shows two sprites left Mainframe using father's access permission."

"We have to go after him!" Akane exclaimed.

Nabiki gave her a wry smile. "Oh father processed this thoroughly. Kasumi and I can't leave, and it's not in your code. Remember: "to protect and do battle." Despite which none of us have any extrasystem experience. Of course narrowing down our search criteria to that, we only get Ranma, Shampoo and Mousse."

"Ranma said that he couldn't go after them, part of his code comes from the ," Kasumi interjected.

"And considering why Shampoo and Mousse are here, do you really want to trust them out there?" Nabiki added.

Akane growled softly. "He's really pinned our bitmaps to the desktop hasn't he."

"I'm certainly impressed, I didn't think he had it in him," Nabiki smiled. "I guess some of my source code did come from him." She paused in thought for a moment. "Kasumi, where did Ranma go after he downloaded his father's file?"

"He said to his apartment."

*****

The apartment was bigger than Ranma needed, after all, he was supposed to share it his father. It was fully furnished, thanks to the previous occupant, who had come to an unfortunate end in a game cube. Ranma sat on the large sofa. He'd tried pacing, that hadn't worked. Then he'd done a work out with a practice drone. All that had done was waste his resources.

So now Ranma sat on the sofa, wondering what to do. He looked around. A table, a shattered practice drone, a couple of chairs, a few doors, a TV... Hmm, a TV, something to do at the very least. Ranma looked around for the remote. He finally found it, buried deep under the sofa.

The remote clicked loudly as the Guardian sprite pressed the power button.

The TV jumped to life; a pair of eyes appearing on its set. "HOWDY, HOWDY, HOWDY!"

"Howdy, howdy, howdy?" Ranma repeated, surprised.

The TV waddled over to Ranma, gripped his hand and shook is hand. "Glad to meet ya!" the TV greeted Ranma enthusiastically. "I'm everyone's favorite appliance, Mike the TV!" Mike's screen changed to show an audience of binome's applauding.

"Uh, hi Mike," Ranma managed.

"Hi yourself kiddo! And who is tonight's first contestant?" Mike asked loudly.

Ranma looked around in confusion. "Huh?" he replied intelligently.

Mike leaned in close and raised a hand to his mouth to talk in a conspiring whisper. "That's you my boy."

Ranma looked at the appliance in confusion. "I'm Ranma."

"Hey folks, getting data out of this guy is like pulling energy from a null!" There was a drum string as Mike spoke to thin air. "So what's your format Ranma?"

"I'm a Guardian." Ranma really wasn't sure how to handle the strange TV.

"A GUARDIAN!" Mike screamed like a fan-girl. "WOW, I've never met a guardian before, this is my lucky, lucky day!"

It was at this point that Mike's remote decided to quit file the scene. Twisting from Ranma's hand it dropped to the ground then shot out the door, making tire squealing sounds as it went. Ranma and Mike watched it go, standing there blinking for a few seconds.

"Why do I get the feeling this is a baaad sign," muttered Ranma. Mike slapped Ranma on the back, nearly knocking him over. "Don't worry, we don't need that little ingrate! We can have lots of fun together!"

*****

Nabiki pressed the door chime again, then looked around. Ranma's apartment was in one of the central sectors of Mainframe, that way the distance to most sectors was minimized. Unfortunately it also meant that his apartment was in one of the less exclusive areas. But, at least it was on level 1.

The corridor was messy. Cartons from take away data food joints hid in the corner. Literally cowering as another appeared to be giving them a speech. Nabiki hated mess; it was inefficient and had a habit of taking over a room.

Nabiki stepped out of the way as the door was thrown open by a TV remote. The small sprite zoomed down the corridor, slamming open the stairwell door before vanishing. Moments later Ranma appeared at the door.

"Did you see which way it went?!" he demanded, a little crazy eyed.

"It escaped down the stairwell," Nabiki replied quickly. "Ranma, what's processing?"

"It's Mike, he's driving me random, and I've been trying to catch his remote," Ranma replied, hurrying to the stairwell. "Damn, it got away."

At that point a TV waddled out of Ranma's. On it's screen was a starscape. "Cache," it said a strange halting voice, "the final frontier. These are the voyages of the MSS Venture. They're five megacycle function, to find new systems, hunt down new peoples, and to boldly go where no binome has gone before."

"MIKE!" Ranma screamed. "SHUT UP!"

Mike's screen fuzzed for a second. Then a picture of a crystal brooch appeared. "And this beautiful piece of jewelry would be perfect for the little lady." Mike said in hushed tones. "Best way to say I love you or I'm sorry. Yours for only ninety-nine ninety-nine ninety-nine." Mike declared.

"Hmm, that would go perfectly with one of my dresses," Nabiki commented, leaning forward.

"Don't encourage him!" Ranma cried.

Mike changed channels again. "And now, back to Days of Our --."

Sparks flew from the lighting in the corridor, and the three sprites were plunged into darkness. The only light came from Mike's screen, which was fuzzy with static and Ranma and Nabiki's eyes.

Ranma blinked. "What was that?"

"Power surge, we've been getting them ever since Kuno and Kodachi arrived," Nabiki explained.

"Who and who?"

"Our resident viruses." The two pools of light that were Nabiki's eyes moved towards the door to Ranma's apartment. "They've destabilised the power grid and nothing we do can fix it. Ranma, where's the handle on this door?"

"It's about chest height," Ranma replied. "You've got two viruses in Mainframe?"

"Yes, thankfully Kodachi's so random she just sits out in Lost Angles and plays games. Kuno though is a problem. Ah, here it is." The door clicked open and the three were bathed in the light streaming through the window in Ranma's lounge. Ranma and Nabiki looked at Mike, who was slumped over.

"Poor Mike, guess he's not much use without any power," Ranma commented. Nabiki stood at the window peering out. "Hmm, looks like a sector wide outage. Kasumi will pick up on it and get it fixed soon. I wonder where Akane is, she said she'd meet me here."

"She probably got downed when the power failed. Don't worry I'm sure she's safe..."

*****

Akane stood in the darkness. "Bitwise elevator!" she muttered.

*****

"...besides which, things could always be worse," Ranma told Nabiki. The sky outside darkened to a deep purple. "Warning: incoming game."

Nabiki turned on Ranma. "You had to open your big mouth!"

Ranma ran to the window. "Where's it falling?"

Nabiki pushed her face against the window, looking up. "Three guesses and they're all..." the room around them vanished in purple light, "...here."

*****

Stars twinkled in the night sky above. The sprites looked around them. Nabiki and Ranma found that Akane, Mike and a number of binomes had joined them. They stood before a sprawling squat building. Through the lighted windows shapes could be seen moving around inside. The large double doors seemed to be the only entrance.

Behind the group sat a large vehicle, the ramp lay open just behind them. It looked like the vehicle was supposed to fly, but there was no obvious means of propulsion.

"Nice of you to join us Akane," Ranma commented, reaching up and tapped his icon twice. "Reboot!" The column of green light fell on him, hiding him from view for a few moments before vanishing into the ground. Ranma was clothed in blue futuristic armour, which covered every pixel of his bitmap. In one hand he casually carried a long laser rifle, the other hand rested on a sword at his hip.

Akane snorted. "You didn't get stuck in the elevator when the power went out." She doubled clicked her icon. "Reboot!" She vanished in the column of light, reappearing moments later in red armour similar to Ranma. In her arms she carried her only weapon, a massive cannon linked to a pack on her back.

"Now, now, lovers, don't fight," Nabiki tutted. She tapped her right armband twice. "Reboot." Nabiki vanished for a moment before reappearing wearing armour as black as the sky above. Her weapons were a strange rounded pistol a pair of daggers at her hip.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Akane demanded, an electronic ring in her voice. There were flashes of light as the binomes started rebooting. Moments later they all stood in an armour of red, blue, black or green.

Inside her armour Nabiki smirked. "Oh, never mind. Now, who recognises this game?" she inquired.

"It's Alien Hunt," Ranma declared. "We have to stop the User from killing all the civilians."

"So we kill the User, that shouldn't be hard," Nabiki lifted the gun. If her helmet hadn't hid her, the others would have seen her grinning evilly.

Ranma shook his head. "It's never that easy. The problem is that the user has a few dozen aliens spread throughout the building, and we have to kill them all to win."

"What's with the colour coding of the armour?" Akane inquired.

"We have twelve units divided into four teams, red, green, blue and black. Each team is made up of three units: heavy weapons, speed attacks or stealth attacks."

"So who's the leader of green team?" Nabiki asked.

"And here he is folks, MIKE THE TV!" A voice announced to the sound of cheering. The three sprites turned to find Mike now wrapped in green armour, happily waving around a cannon.

"MIKE!" screamed Ranma. "Keep it down, we don't what the User to find us yet."

"You're a little late there Ranma," Nabiki commented dryly. Instinctively everyone snapped their heads round to face the building. Standing at the doors leading inside was a bug like alien holding a staff. The creature hissed once before lowering its staff to point towards the assembled Mainframers. A bolt of energy flew through the group to strike the side of the vehicle, leaving a scorch mark.

"Hey, he damaged the paint work!" one of the zero binomes complained.

The alien's face fell as the Mainframers whipped out weapons.

"Bye-bye!" Ranma waved at the alien.

The flash of light that enveloped the bug was accompanied by a thunderous detonation. Everyone turned to look at the blue armoured zero binome that had fired. He tried to look innocent by hiding a gun twice his size behind him. "Sorry, my finger slipped." Everyone regarded him coolly.

"Okay Guardian, what's our strategy?" Nabiki asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Last time I played this, our group leader had us set up a secure room with one group while the other three hunt aliens and ferry any civilians back."

"Akane?"

"Sounds like as good a plan as any," Akane agreed. "Okay, Mike, your team's on station keeping. Once we find a suitable room we'll spread out, and keep com chatter to a minimum."

*****

The one binome in green armour glanced back into the room, then returned his gaze to the corridor. The Sprites and binomes had found a room whose only entrance was at the end of a long corridor. After checking it for hostiles and welding shut all the airvents, Ranma, Akane and Nabiki had left Mike and his two binomes to search for the rest of the User's aliens.

While searching the Mainframers had found three civilians, who they had brought with them. They were typical game sprites, only able to react in the way they had been programmed. At the moment that meant that they kept running around the room yelling for help, stopping, then starting to run again.

It was starting to get on the binomes' nerves.

Everything else seemed peaceful.

*****

Everything seemed peaceful.

Akane watched as the zero binome on point moved forward. She tensed as he reached the corner and peered round. He held a finger to his lips, then waved the others forward. Without a sound the sprite and the one binome crept forward. They joined their quiet compatriot at the corner and sneaked a peek.

Another of the bug aliens stood before a set of inset elevator doors. Its dark green leathery armour (or was that skin) gleamed slightly in the fluorescent lights. They could see ichor dripping from its mandibles and in one clawed hand it held an energy staff.

Akane turned to the one binome that was carrying the rifle and sword. She pointed to him, then around the corner. He nodded his top block then unslung his rifle. The other two shifted out of his way as he slowly and carefully took aim. Energy sizzled through the air, striking the bug. With a scream the alien collapsed to the ground.

The group waited a few anxious moments to see if the cry had altered any other aliens. They listened, but nothing broke the silence. Akane moved forward, sweeping the corridor with her cannon.

"Area clear," Akane announced, lowering her weapon.

"Do we go up Miss Tendo?" The one binome indicated the elevator.

Inside her armour Akane frowned in thought. "Hold on a moment, I want to check something." She slung the cannon on her shoulder then touched a control on her arm, calling up a map on the inside of her visor. The map showed all four teams and the area they had explored. Nabiki and Ranma had both reached the ends of the building, exploring only one side. Her own course had been somewhat more random. Guessing the general layout of the floor she realised that Ranma and Nabiki would pretty much have to loop back and explore the area she was in.

She touched another control, activating her communicator. . "Red team reporting," she said. "We've found an elevator and are going up to the next level."

"Black team," Nabiki's voice crackled through the radio. "Be careful sis, I've just encountered a pair of game sprites who have been unformatted."

*****

Nabiki closed down her com. The rooms in this building seemed to be furnished almost exactly the same. True, the layout tended to be different and sometimes the number of pieces changed, but in this place when you'd seen one sofa, you'd seen them all.

This room was the main room of a set of apartments, apparently inhabited by a mother and child. Well, those were the sprite parts that were scattered around the floor. Nabiki knelt next to the torso of the mother sprite. She poked one of the wounds experimentally. Not being an expert she couldn't be sure, but the wound didn't look like it had been caused by the energy weapons.

"Ah, Ms Tendo," one the binomes interrupted her, "we found something you should see."

Nabiki turned to find the black clad binome standing at the doors into one of the rooms. She stood and nodded. "Show me."

The binome took Nabiki into the room. It was bathroom, built in exactly the same way every other bathroom she had been in since entering the game. Nothing seemed out of place, so she turned to gaze to the binome, who immediately pointed up. A vent in the roof, barely big enough for the one binome to fit through, had been cut away. The slices looked to be smooth and precise, no energy gun had caused them.

Nabiki opened her com again. "I can confirm something is using the air vents to move around. Whatever it is its small and has some kind of metal cutting blade."

*****

A bolt of energy flew past Ranma's head as he listened to Nabiki.

"Great, something else to worry about," he complained without opening his com. He leaned, back to the wall, holding his rifle. The zero binome carrying the cannon sat in a similar position across the corridor intersection while the stealthy binome sat nearby. Round the corner and down the corridor a way a pair of bugs were holed up, managing to keep Ranma's group pinned.

"One grenade, just give me one grenade," Ranma sighed.

"Yes, sir!" The zero binomes tossed a small sphere to him.

Ranma instinctively caught the object. It was a grenade, minus the pin. MINUS THE PIN?! He immediately leaned out into the corridor and tossed the grenade down the corridor. Silence fell as Ranma ducked back in, only to be shattered by the explosion.

Ranma and the two binomes leaned out around the corners. The explosion had vaporised the aliens, leaving behind only a pair of evidence. Ranma blinked and spun to face the zero binome. "WHO THE HECK ARE YOU?!" he demanded.

The binome saluted. "Orsky Pavlov, sir!"

"Orsky?" Ranma repeated, then shook his head to clear it. "I meant are you a friend or a spy for the User?"

"Oh, a friend, definitely sir."

"Then if you ever throw me a grenade without a pin in it again I will personally throw you into the energy sea."

"Yes, sir!" The binome smiled happily.

Ranma wondered what it felt like to be nullified.

*****

The loud ding caused Akane to wince visibly. Her team rushed through the opening elevator doors, brandishing their weapons. A quick sweep of the corridor revealed no hostiles.

Akane turned to her two binomes. "Okay, gang lets--"

Suddenly the roof fell upon the pair of binomes. All Akane saw was teeth and claw as something vanished back into the hole with the two binomes. Akane stood in shock for a few seconds before diving into a roll. The crash from behind her told her reaction had been right. She rolled onto her back, firing randomly at the roof.

Silence fell as her finger eased off the trigger. Through the roof she could see up to the next level, but there was no sign of whatever was attacking her.

She took a moment to thumb her com open. "I'm under attack," she whispered urgently. "Two men down timed."

"Akane backspace!" Ranma ordered. Akane was surprised at the worry in his voice.

"No can do, its attacking from the ceiling," she returned.

"Crash it," Ranma swore. "Okay, we're on our way."

Akane lay for a few moments before deciding that she didn't need Ranma. She put the cannon down and stated to climb to her feet. Reaching out she fetched her gun and slowly, keeping her eyes on the roof and the corridor back towards the elevator.

It all happened so fast that she was barely aware of it. First a slimy claw yanked the cannon from her hands, then IT dropped from the ceiling right in front of her. Akane's eyes immediately became fixed on the thing's jaws as it loomed over her. Ichor oozed from its bared teeth as it hissed. The alien reared up to strike the killing blow and fell into two pieces on the ground.

Akane blinked. Fell into two pieces on the ground? What kind of attack was that?

Beyond the remains of her attacker Akane saw a sprite that appeared her own age. His skin was orange and he was clothed in a brown cloth jacket and black trousers with a bandana wrapped around his head. A hiking pack was hung across his back, a myriad ofitems attached to it including a large parasol. In his hands he held a sword, his stance suggested he had just finished a long swing.

Akane reached up and released the latches on her helmet, pulling it off. With one hand she held the helmet at her side while she offered the other to the stranger. "Hi, I'm Akane. Thanks for the save."

The stranger straightened, then twirled the blade in one hand and shoved the blade into the handle of the parasol resting behind his head. "You're, ah, welcome. Um, I'm RyoGA, what are you doing here?" he asked. Akane gazed down at the two alien halves at her feet. "We're supposed to be deleting these things."

"Deleting? What a strange way to put," RyoGA looked around. "Who's we?" Before Akane could answer the elevator behind her let out a ding. In a single fluid movement she snatched her cannon from the dead aliens claws and spun to kneel facing the opening elevator doors. Behind her she heard the sound of sliding metal on metal.

The doors were open for a few nanoseconds before a blue blur dived out rolling along the floor and coming to a rest facing towards them, rifle pointing towards them. All three sprites held the scene for a few seconds before Ranma jerked his gun away. The blue team leader stood and touched one of the controls on his arm.

"Blue team reporting. I've found her Nabiki. She's fine, she's just taken her helmet off, that's all." Ranma shut down his com and approached the pair. "What 's with scaring us like that? First we here the sounds of battle through the com, then we can't raise you."

"What business is it of yours? I handled things fine!" Akane snapped.

"Oh yeah?" Ranma managed to glare at her through his helmet. "And I suppose you managed to slice the alien apart with your cannon."

Akane was about to reply when RyoGA stepped between them, facing Ranma. "That is no way to talk to a lady, I demand you apologise at once!"

"What's it to you katana boy?!" Ranma demanded looking him up and down.

"Ranma, don't you dare talk to him like that!" Akane yelled. Ranma opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by a one binome clearing his throat. The three turned to look down at the one. "Excuse me, but shouldn't we be getting on with the game?"

RyoGA looked at the small sprite in surprise. "You call this a game? Is it really so little?"

Now it was Ranma, Akane and the two binomes to look at him strangely.

"Games are a matter of formatting and deletion with us," Ranma replied.

"What's the matter with you? Everyone knows that."

"What are you people?" RyoGA demanded.

Ranma and Akane shared a glance. "We're sprites, trying to beat the User at a game so we don't get nullified." she explained.

"Sprites? Game? Nullified? I don't understand any of this," RyoGA looked about in confusion.

Ranma swore suddenly. He was looking at Glitch on his wrist, the little device had extended its disc. "He's a game sprite!"

Akane turned to face him. "What?"

"I think we'd better get Nabiki in on this."

*****

Nabiki was waiting for them when they returned to the secure room. Akane and Ranma immediately removed their helmets, then glanced around the room. Nabiki had found another five civilians, so now eight game sprites were randomly running around the room yelling for help.

Nabiki immediately pulled Ranma aside. "Who is he?" she demanded.

"His name's RyoGA and Glitch says he's a game sprite. The thing is he acts nothing like any attack, passive or random I've ever met," Ranma explained.

Nabiki looked over at where her sister talked to the stranger. He wasn't really paying attention to her, but watching the other game sprites. Confusion was written all over his face. "Ranma have you ever heard of an AI?" she asked.

Ranma shrugged. "Some rumours, that's all. Game sprites that act like normal sprites. They learn, adapt to new situations, that kind of thing. I've never met one."

"Well either you're key tool needs debugging, or you have now." Nabiki turned to watch as RyoGA walked over to one of the other game sprites and waved his hand in front of it. "I'd say our input is adding dimensions to his code that he's never even considered."

Akane wandered over to the pair. "And what are you two whispering about?" she asked waspishly.

"Our friend there, we think he's breaking free of the game," Ranma replied, nodding towards RyoGA.

"So you think he's safe to be around?" Akane asked.

Ranma and Nabiki both shrugged, but didn't answer. Akane felt a presence step up behind her, and turned to find RyoGA standing there. He appeared to be upset about something.

"If this is a game," he said with false calm, "what happens to me when it ends?"

The three sprites shared a glance.

"You'll leave with the game, probably reset to your original state," Ranma answered honestly.

"I can't let that happen!" he seethed.

Nabiki shook her head. "You can't stop it. Sooner or later either we'll defeat the User or he'll defeat us."

"And you'll be nullified? What does that mean?" The sprite asked seething like a volcano.

"Reduced to nulls, gone, nothing left of us but mindless energy eaters. Its one of the worst fates a sprite can suffer," Akane explained. RyoGA closed his eyes, thinking for a few nanoseconds. "I will die anyway, but if you win, you'll live," he mused aloud. His eyes snapped open and he nodded resolutely. "I will help you win, at least then my life will have had a purpose."

Akane smiled at him brightly. "Th--"

Gunfire drowned out her words. The two binomes at the door had opened fire. Ranma immediately dashed towards the door, unslinging his rifle and slamming his helmet on his head. A hoard of aliens were attempting to charge down the corridor, but were starting to pile up under the relentless auto-rifle fire from the binomes guarding the door.

"They're attempting to break in!" Ranma yelled, adding his fire to that or the guards. "The User must have killed the rest of the civilians and is going all out at us!"

"Watch your backs, he may try to break in else where!" Nabiki shouted. She was proved right moments later when a bunch of aliens broke through the roof. The room was full of explosion, screams, cries of "help me!" and hisses. The battle raged, Ranma paying only a little attention to what was going on behind him as the waves of aliens rolled down the corridor.

It wasn't long before the numbers ahead of him started to diminish so Ranma turned to survey the battle inside, just in time to hear RyoGA cry, "AKANE!!" A single alien sprung up in the ceiling carrying a familiar looking red suit.

Ranma saw red. He leveled his gun and started firing. With pinpoint accuracy he downed every alien inside the room. Peace descended as the last of the aliens fell, the assembled sprites standing there, staring at the enraged Ranma.

"Casualties?" he demanded.

Nabiki looked around. "We lost one heavy weapons and one stealth to aliens and Orsky shot himself, not lethally." Everyone paused for a few moments, trying to figure out how you shot yourself with a gun that was bigger than you. "They got Akane, and six of our eight civilians." Ranma nodded. For a moment he debated whether or not to risk using Glitch to find out their enemies condition, then lifted his arm. "Glitch, game stats," he ordered. He looked at Glitch's display for a moment.

"Akane's alive and the User has two aliens," he informed the others. "Our two remaining civilians are all that are left."

Again Ranma nodded. "Okay Nabiki, take the civilians, Mike and the binomes. Go out to the aircraft. Sweep it before locking the civilians in, and stay there."

"What are you and RyoGA going to be doing?" Nabiki asked.

Ranma held up his rifle. "Can you say rescue mission?"

*****

The corridors of the third level were dark and gloomy. Shadows played across the green ribbed walls constructed by the aliens. They'd been busy, these aliens, or more to the point, the User. As far as the two sprites could see the entire third floor had been redecorated in late Escher.

Ranma and RyoGA crept through the corridors, following Akane's suit signal on Ranma's map. Ranma held his rifle ready while RyoGA's sword glinted in the dim light. It wasn't long before the winding corridor came to an end. The wall seemed just like the others.

"Great, no turn offs and no way on," RyoGA complained.

Ranma, ignoring him, pulled off his suit gloves and started feeling along the wall. "There's a seam here, it used to be a door." He pulled his sword from its sheath and started chipping away at the wall. After a few moments he jammed the sword into the hole he'd made. He started using the blade as a lever.

"Need some help?" RyoGA asked, watching him.

"If you don't mind!" Ranma returned.

RyoGA laid his hands over Ranma's and the two sprites strained. There was a snap and the two sprites went sprawling. Ranma held up his now broken sword. "Crash it!"

RyoGA chuckled. "Look at that." He pointed to the door. Their efforts had managed to push it open.

The room beyond was a forest of columns, so dense that the duo couldn't see more than a few hundred pixels. Ranma reached up and pulled off his helmet. "This thing's restricting my vision." He tossed the helmet away. It bounced a couple of times before disappearing from view.

"That was stupid Ranma, you could have awakened something," RyoGA commented. Moments later the columns exploded.

The two sprites instinctively raised their arms to cove their faces as the shards pelted them. A huge alien, all teeth and claws, dove from the darkness. One of its huge pincers struck at Ranma, sending him flying away. Ranma struck the wall head first and last thing he saw as the darkness of unconsciousness took him was the alien's claws wrapping themselves around RyoGA.

"RANMA!" RyoGA yelled, seeing the other sprite collapse to the ground. The alien's claws were vice strong around his waist. He spun his sword in his hands and struck down at the claw, trying to chip away the armour. The Alien hefted the struggling sprite to its gapping maw. Its long eyestalk bent down to watch its meal. "Your last mistake, monster," RyoGA chuckled, reversing his sword once more. With a single thrust the blade pierced deep within the creature's orb. The alien's death scream was joined by RyoGA's as the claw crushed him.

*****

Nabiki frowned. She'd secured the final two civilians in the aircraft then set up patrols. Now she had just one problem. Where were those three?

*****

Ranma groaned as he awoke. His eyes snapped open and he gazed around. The alien, the same one that had kidnapped Akane and then attacked him, lay dead not far away.

How long had he been down timed? he wondered. There was no sign of RyoGA, Ranma wondered what had become of him. "Glitch, stats, RyoGA and Akane." Glitch's disc increased in side and slid up to form a screen.

"RyoGA - Genius Artificial, Condition monitor zero." Ranma paused, eyes closed. He'd only known the sprite for a short time, but he seemed like he had a good code. "Akane - Mainframe Data sprite, Condition monitor one."

Ranma smiled, at least there was some good news. He searched around, finding his rifle, or at least the both halves of it. Unfortunately it had broken in the fall. Now he needed a new weapon.

He spotted it. The hilt of RyoGA's sword stuck out of the dead alien's eye. It appeared to be Ranma's only choice so he walked over gripped the handle and yelped in shock.

"What's with this bugged sword?" Ranma demanded waving his hands in pain. He immediately grabbed the sword again and yanked it from the eye. This time there was no shock from the weapon.

Ranma held the sword before him, an evil grin on his face. "Watch out User, 'cause I'm coming to get you!" Light glinted off the blade of his sword.

*****

"You random piece of bugged code! Keep you eyes to yourself!" Akane yelled. After she been captured, the alien had brought her to what appeared to be some kind of main chamber. Her capture had pushed against the wall and secreted green bile on her arms and legs that had hardened, trapping her against the wall. Once it was sure she was firmly affixed it had ripped her helmet off. Akane didn't know why, but the large tentacled alien in the center of the room had spent a lot of time examining her with an eyeball on a pseudopod.

"HEY UGLY!" A voice shouted from the other side of the room. "How about facing someone who can fight back!"

All the thing's pseudopods pulled away, shifting their attention to new comer.

"I'm Ranma Saotome, Guardian of Mainframe and member of the Anything Goes School of Gaming!" The voice declared. "Prepare to lose!"

"RANMA!" Akane cried happily. From where she was trapped she saw the pseudopods start withering, then one of the tentacles slid sideways and Ranma flew into sight. He bounced off one of the walls and soared straight towards her, sword outstretched. There were two flashes of light and Akane fell forward into Ranma's waiting arms.

"Hang on tight Akane," Ranma said, bounding off the wall and arcing upwards, "we're finishing this game!"

Akane wrapped her arms around him tightly and craned her head around as they reached the apex of their flight. She saw where they were heading. "Ranma, have you gone completely RANDOM?!" she screamed, closing her eyes tight as they plummeted towards the center of the alien. She felt the jolt as they impacted.

"Game Over," the computer announced moments later.

"Ooooh!" a collection of voices chorused from around them.

Akane cracked her eyes open. They now stood on the roof of Ranma's apartment building, surrounded by the sprites and binomes that had survived the game. And to all appearances she was in a loving embrace with Ranma.

She let her arms fall to her side and took a step back. She was quiet, too quiet. From behind her back she pulled the largest mallet Ranma had ever seen. Ranma's face fell and he tried to parry with the sword. Akane swung the mallet around clubbing Ranma. "RANMA YOU JERK!"

Nabiki stepped up beside her. "You're in good form today," she commented, watching Ranma vanish into the sky.


	3. v 1,3

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.3: We'll Always have Jusenkyo.

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Ranma: I come from the net,

through systems, peoples and cities,

to this place,

Mainframe.

My format: Guardian, to mend and defend,

to defend my new friends and family,

their lives and honor,

to defend them from,

their enemies.

*****

The sword arced cleanly through the air, tumbling end over end. Slowly it fell, past the highest level and down, down, down into the depths of Mainframe. Deep in the bowels of Mainframe it fell, to a dingy alley and behind a pile of boxes, it landed, point first, with a yelp.

With a yelp?

*****

"Yes, thank you for the report. I'll have Ranma stop by and fix it as soon as he's free," Kasumi bowed to the vid window.

"Yeah... well... there's... no... hurry," the one binome in the window drawled. He wore a greasy apron and hat. His one eye blinked with an amazing lack of speed.

"I wish you well," Kasumi said to him.

"Good... bye," the binome replied. Kasumi closed the window, and immediately opened another. The new window showed the red-haired face of Ranma-chan. Behind her the levels of Mainframe blurred downwards.

"Oh, you're female again Ranma," Kasumi commented.

"Yeah, that violent maniac you call a sister knocked me all the way down to level 31. I hit an exposed power conduit and morphed," Ranma-chan complained, pulling a face. "But you didn't call me to discuss my status, what's processing?"

"I just got a report of a tear in Al's Diner down on level 31," Kasumi informed.

"Ah, man, I was just there!"

"Sorry Ranma,"

"That's okay, you weren't to know."

"Well be careful."

"Function well." Ranma-chan signed off. The window popped out of existence.

Kasumi shrugged and turned back to her desk and busied herself keeping Mainframe running smoothly. So much to do and so few cycles.

*****

Ranma-chan pushed open the door and walked into the diner. It was a grimy place, with a serving bar and a number of booths along the opposite wall. At the far end of the room a jukebox sat quietly playing slow tunes to itself. Most of the booths were inhabited by binomes, although in one the numeral 7 sat alone, every so often taking bytes out of its burger.

Behind the counter a waiter stood waiting. His clothes, like the rest of the diner, were covered in grease. He slowly turned to regard Ranma. "What... may... I... do... for... you... darlin'?"

Ranma-chan bristled slightly at being called darling, then stepped up to the counter. "Kasumi sent me to fix a tear."

"But... Kasumi... said... the... Guardian... was... a... man," Al's waiter said.

"Don't worry about it, I'm Ranma Saotome, and I'm a Guardian. Show me the tear and I'll fix it." The binome was starting to wear his patience thin. He talked like he was operating at half clock speed.

"Right," the binome said. "AL!"

"WHAT?!" A voice cried from the kitchen.

"I'm... taking... the... Guardian... to... fix... the... tear," Al's waiter replied.

Ranma-chan slowly followed the binome through the employees only door and into the store room. The tear fizzled and spat in the centre of the room.

"Looks simple enough," Ranma-chan commented. "Glitch, repair." Glitch's parts slid around, reconfiguring themselves so that the disc became a cone pointing at the tear. The cone emitted a stream of gold hoops that encircled the tear, slowly shrinking it. Finally the tear exploded into nothingness. "See, no trouble."

"Thank... You... Guardian," Al's waiter returned slowly.

*****

Kuno turned as the elevator arrived. The two robots, Sasuke and Gosunkugi rolled off the platform, approaching him in silence. Neither looked pleased to see their master, which put Kuno in a bad mood

"Enlighten me!"

Sasuke looked up at Gosunkugi. "You tell him!"

Gosunkugi looked down and shoved his partner. "No you tell him!"

"You!" Sasuke replied pushing back.

"Don't-don't you think you should tell him?" Gosunkugi shoved back.

"SASUKE REPORT!" Kuno roared.

Both henchbots cringed away from the angry virus.

"W-we couldn't find anything," the smaller bot stuttered.

"Not a thing," Gosunkugi sighed.

"No one knows her," Sasuke added.

Kuno covered his eyes with one hand and groaned. "Nothing you say. Every sprite in this system creates a data trail, and in all of Mainframe only one sprite accesses them all. Bring me Ms Tendo."

*****

The Nekohanten restaurant served the fastest food in Mainframe. Binomes and sprites came from all over the system to partake of the digital cuisine, including Mainframe's own Defender, Akane Tendo. She sat nursing a quantum shake, just staring at the cup.

The restaurant File Server slid up next to her booth. He was a white box, with a pair of arms stuck to the sides and a golden rod attaching him to a rail attached to the roof. On the front a depressed screen contained his face and a pair of thick glasses hung from his "shoulders" covering the picture of eyes. Beneath the screen a sticker proudly proclaimed his name, Mousse.

Mousse cleared his throat. "Excuse me miss, your mood is darkening the room."

Akane looked up. "Hmm, what? Oh, hi Mousse."

Mousse started visibly. He had at least expected a comeback, if not a beating. "Is something wrong Akane?"

Akane shrugged. "Just feeling a little sorry for myself."

Mousse moved closer to her. "Do you want to talk about it? I'd sit down next to you, but that's a little hard when you don't have legs." He waved at the empty space beneath his monitor.

Akane smiled weakly. "Oh, it's nothing really."

"Then it won't be any trouble to tell me about then."

"Okay, okay. We've got a new Guardian in the system..."

Mousse nodded. "I'd heard."

"Yeah, well, father decided I should link with him," Akane explained gloomily.

"There'll be a lot of binomes crying themselves to sleep when that hits the Usenet," Mousse commented sagely.

Ignoring him Akane continued. "What's worse is, we went into a game, and I had to be saved!" Akane slammed her fist on the table, causing Mousse to bob away back. "Then he had the gall to embarrass me in front of my sister and a whole lot of binomes!"

"The scoundrel!" Mousse interjected.

Akane was becoming incensed. "He thinks so much of himself, but he's the one that turns into a girl." Mousse started in shock so violently his glasses slipped off. He fumbled with them for a few seconds before returning them to his face.

"Turns into a girl?" Mousse repeated faintly. "Ah, excuse me, I've left some, ah, energy Ramen assembling in the kitchen." Mousse zipped off along his rail through the swinging doors into the kitchen.

Akane blinked. "That was... sudden."

"MOUSSE NO TOUCH!" A voice screamed from the kitchen, and Mousse came flying box first back along the rail. He bounced off one wall and made a circuit of the restaurant before coming to a stop. Akane shook her head, that was one pair of sprites she would never understand.

The door jingled as it opened, causing Akane and many of the other patrons to look up. Mainframe's defender scowled and got to her feet. A number of binomes glanced between the two, and sensing something in the air, zoomed out the door.

Ranma surveyed the room, and spotted Akane stalking towards him. He opened his mouth to apologise even as she lifted her finger to wave before her. At the same moment the kitchen doors banged open.

"RANMA!" A happy - and very cute - voice cried. Before either sprite had a chance to react Ranma felt something collide with him and wrap itself around his torso.

Akane and Ranma both slowly looked down, to find a sprite had glomped Ranma and was smiling happily at the Guardian. Her skin was as blue as Ranma's and her silvery purple hair was done up in a pair of pony tails. She was almost as cute as her voice, Ranma reflected. Behind her a tray crashed to the ground.

A sudden shadow loomed over the poor male sprite, and moments later he found his head slammed into the ground by Akane's mallet, the cute sprite still attached to him.

The newcomer popped to her feet. "Why violent Defender girl hit Ranma?!" she demanded.

"Shampoo, you! You! YOU DESERVE HIM!!" Akane screamed, stomping out the door. Shampoo stood, hands on hips, glaring as she left.

"Did anyone get the address space of the cluster that hit me?" Ranma groaned from the floor.

Shampoo immediately shot to his side, and started to help him to his feet. "It Defender sprite, she very violent, hit Mousse all time."

Ranma reached up and felt the back of his head. "Did she have to hit so hard?"

"Shampoo not see her so angry before." She started guiding him towards a free table.

Ranma looked at the sprite. "Shampoo what're you doing here? More to the point, why are you speaking so strangely?"

Shampoo frowned as she helped him into a seat. "Shampoo's parser not compatible with Mainframe environment, so she sound funny. try fix, but not able to do anything." She shrugged. "Shampoo live with it."

Ranma shook his head to clear it. "Okay, if you say --"

The sudden slamming open of the door interrupted Ranma. A binome wearing a biker jacket rushed into the restaurant. "Virals just grabbed the Defender!" he yelled.

Ranma leapt to his feet. "WHAT?!" he demanded.

*****

A blue fist rapped on the door. The hand belonged to a blue skinned, blonde haired sprite in a jump suit with the words "Paul's Power Pizza" on it, casually supported above her head in the other hand were six boxes. She happily chewed gum while waiting, floating on her zip board.

It was only a nanoseconds before the door was pulled open by a dark blue zero binome. He looked up at the girl and blinked. "Yes?"

"3P delivery, get your pizza hot or get it free." The girl told him in a bad Brooklyn accent. "Got a delivery here for one Kuno." She blew a bubble which popped, covering her face. A bit of skilful chewing pulled the gum back into her mouth.

"Master Kuno doesn't eat pizza!" the binome replied, and slammed the door.

"Damn!" the girl swore.

*****

Kuno sat and watched as Gosunkugi and Sasuke approached carrying a bound sprite. The sprite in question was wrapped in black cables from head to toe, but hugged the prisoners form so well that it was obvious that it was female. The two bots dropped their burden to her feet.

"Remove her bonds." Kuno stood and paced over to the trio, then turned away as the two bots started fiddling with the knots. "You are my enemy Ms Tendo, but ever you consider yourself a business-sprite and I'm sure I can offer you recompense that will cause you to put aside you feelings." Kuno walked back to the chair. "All I require is information about this sprite." Kuno reached out and touched a button on his chair. A window popped up, showing a closeup of Ranma-chan. "Simply upload this data to me Nabiki Tendo and I will..." Kuno's voice trailed off as he turned back to look at the bound figure.

Gosunkugi and Sasuke had unwound the sprite's head, to reveal a gagged Akane glaring at Kuno. Kuno sighed deeply and covered his face. "While the Defender's company is a delight, you have fetched the WRONG Tendo!"

Gosunkugi and Sasuke glanced at each other. "Uh oh!"

*****

Blue knuckles rapped on the door again. This time the girl standing there was black haired, wearing a skimpy combat fatigues and carrying a briefcase. Ammo belts crossed her chest and upon her head she wore a beret.

The door was again opened by the zero binome. "What do you want?"

"I'm here to see Kuno about a shipment of arms," the girl replied.

"Got an appointment?" the binome asked pulling out a clipboard.

"Ah, no," the sprite admitted.

"Can't get in to see the boss without an appointment." The binome slammed shut the door.

"What is it with this guy?" the sprite muttered before zipping off.

*****

Once more the door was knocked upon by a blue hand. The third girl was blue skinned with flowing blonde hair and dressed in an extremely cute pink dress. She smiled prettily as the dark blue zero binome opened the door.

"Hi," she greeted in a chirpy voice. "I've got a singing telegram for Kuno."

The binome stared at her for a few nanos, before pulling back into the room. Whispered voices could be heard inside. Outside the girl sprite waited impatiently.

The messenger sprite jumped when the binome suddenly popped back into view. "Okay miss, we'll take you up to see him." The binome opened the door wide.

The girl blinked, she hadn't expect this lousy disguise to work. Keeping in character she skipped into the Tor, waited till the door was closed, then shot the three binomes inside with a file blocker. Inside the jade blocks the three binomes wore looks that said, "but she was so cute!"

Looking around the girl tapped her icon, restoring her clothes to their normal Guardian armour and getting rid of the wig. Ranma-chan glanced at the trapped binomes. "Idiots," she muttered, then hurried from the room.

Outside the parts of a pair of black bots crashed to the ground.

*****

Kuno paced back and forth, watched by the still gagged and bound Akane. He swung his sword casually as he walked. "It pains me to hold you like this my beloved," he announced glancing at the bound defender of Mainframe. "I could send you to the PID extraction chamber, but that would subtract from the fire of your code." He spun about and strode back across the platform. Why does uncertainly plague my mind?"

"Mmfmaff!" Akane cried.

"Pardon my dear?" Kuno asked, turning to face her.

"An opening!" A female voice cried, moments before Kuno crashed to the ground. Ranma-chan bounced off Kuno's back towards Akane. The blue girl landed, sweeping the other sprite into her arms. "Miss me?" Akane glared back at him.

"Ah, my pigtailed goddess," rumbled Kuno, getting to his feet, "I seek thee and thou comes to me as quickly as the wind. Not only that but you gift me with your feather like touch."

Ranma-chan raised her eyebrows. "Feather like?"

Kuno covered he heart with his free hand. "Even the hardest punch feels like the sweetest caress when backed by the force of love!"

Ranma-chan looked down at Akane. "Is this guys serious?!" she demanded. The defender nodded emphatically.

Kuno raised his sword and held it at arms length, pointing at the pair of female sprites. "Swear fealty to me, or face me in battle."

"Huh? I have no idea what you just said, but I ain't doing anything a virus wants!" Ranma-chan declared defiantly.

"Then I must prove myself in combat!" Kuno proclaimed, charging forward, sword swinging.

Ranma-chan sprung out of the way, somersaulting over the virus' head. "As much as I'd like to try out my skills, I've got my hands full at the moment." The Guardian bounced across the room, holding Akane in his arms. "Does this seem at all familiar to you?" she asked the girl in her arms.

Kuno roared, twisting to chase the escaping pair. Ranma-chan reached the edge of the platform and glanced over the edge. She turned to face the virus, still holding Akane.

"I have you now!" Kuno sneered.

"I'll never give up to the likes of you!" Ranma-chan yelled and took a step back. Akane's muffled scream faded as the pair fell from view.

Kuno leapt to the edge and peered down into the darkness. "She sought deletion over defeat. Ah she was truly the equal of the fair Akane and would have made the perfect bride."

"Such pretty compliments," Ranma-chan gushed from behind him. Kuno turned to find the blue sprite hovering behind him on a zip-board, still holding the bound Akane in he arms. "Bye-bye!" The Guardian smiled sweetly and kicked Kuno hard in the chin. The virus flipped over backwards and plummeted into the darkness.

"Well that was easy," Ranma-chan commented as she floated upwards.

Akane rolled her eyes and screamed into her gag. Her rescuer turned to see Kuno soar back into view and land with a crash. The virus cut the air with his sword and leapt again, soaring up towards the escaping pair.

"Oh, boy!" Ranma-chan's eyes opened wide. She pushed down on one side of the zip-board, swerving to one side, but not fast enough. One of Kuno's claws snagged the zip-board, snatching it out from under Ranma-chan's feet, leaving the two sprites floating on nothing.

"AHHHHH!" Ranma screamed, looking down. Kuno crashed to the ground below them. "Huh? Why aren't we falling?" Ranma-chan asked looking down through empty space.

"Shampoo want know how female Ranma get so heavy!" Shampoo complained from above them. The cute sprite had caught hold of the back of Ranma-chan's body armour and was hovering on her zip-board, holding them up.

Below Kuno looked up and roared.

"Now would be a good time to get us out of here Shampoo!" Ranma-chan cried, watching the virus. Akane nodded her agreement.

"Shampoo trying," Shampoo replied, visibly straining, "but Guardian and violent Defender girl heavy!" She was straining visibly as the zip-board carried them higher.

"Curse you Amazon!" Kuno shouted. "You will regret stealing my loves from me!"

"Shampoo quaking in boots," Shampoo returned flippantly.

Akane finally managed to work the gag free from her mouth. "Ranma, YOU IDIOT, USE GLITCH!"

Ranma-chan blinked. "Hehe, sorry." He looped one arm around Akane, holding her tight, then raised the other. "Glitch, rotor." Glitch immediately changed shape into a large helicopter rotor, lifting Ranma and Akane from Shampoo grasp.

"Bye-bye Kuno!" Ranma-chan yelled.

"I will have you pig-tailed-goddess, Akane, nothing you do will stop ME!" Kuno screamed as they disappeared.

*****

"So you two know each other?" Nabiki asked. She, Ranma, Akane and Shampoo were sitting at a table at the Nekohanten. Ranma was sporting a bandage wrapped around his head and a cute blue sprite attached to his arm. Nabiki was doing her best to ignore her grumbling sister.

Ranma nodded. "We met at Jusenkyo, Shampoo was working as a System debugger there. It was part of her function to help pop and me fix the tear."

"Shampoo like Ranma from start, but when Ranma save Shampoo in accident.." Shampoo sighed deeply. Akane groaned and rolled her eyes.

Nabiki nodded knowingly. "Oh, so you were involved in that accident. So what do you change into?" Nabiki inquired, smiling sweetly.

"Who say Shampoo turn into something?" Shampoo returned a little too quickly.

Nabiki chuckled. "Okay Shampoo, I'll believe you." Her smile said otherwise. She turned to Ranma. "It looks like you've got another sprite attached to you Ranma, you really are in demand these days. So who do you like better?"

Ranma, suddenly the focus of attention for three women sprites and a dozen or so eavesdropping binomes, shifted uncomfortably. "Uh..."

*****

Peace finally settled over the Tor. The neighbours would have complained about all the crashing and thumping, but the only person to complain to was also the source of the noise. The peace didn't last long.

"YOU DID WHAT TO MY PIZZA!"


	4. v 1,4

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.4: The Black Binome

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Akane: I fight for Mainframe,

Against viruses and the User.

My format: Defender,

To protect and do battle.

To protect my friends and family,

Their lives and codes,

To protect them from,

Our enemies.

*****

The city of Mainframe hovered over the Energy Sea from which it drew its power. The sea itself was nothing more than raw, seething energy and any constructs coming in contact with it were immediately broken into their component bits. It was for this reason that any ships traversing the sea typically flew several thousand pixels above the surface.

The piers of Mainframe abutted Kits Sector, one of the more populated sectors in Mainframe. Binomes came from all over Mainframe to spend their days off lying in the deck chairs or going on leisurely cruises across the sea. On busy days both charter boats and private yachts vied for the space, because few binomes could afford the expense of a permanent berth.

The numeral 8 walked along the pier towards a pair of binomes staring through binoculars out to sea. It was a quiet day, with no Mainframe ships out, so the pair quickly spotted the strange ship.

"Haven't seen that one before Jim," the one binome commented.

"Looks like a big cargo vessel of some kind Al," the zero returned.

"Tell me Jim, does it look like their sails are a set of very large woman's bloomers?" Al asked.

"Why yes Al, it appears so. They even have red hearts all over them," Jim replied.

"Isn't that strange Jim?"

The zero did a full body nod. "Yes Al, it is."

The large three-masted galley did indeed have a large pair of bloomers hanging from the spars. "Sails" full, the ship charged towards the Mainframe pier at high speed. When those observing realized that it showed no sign of slowing, they ran screaming from the pier.

With a loud number crunching sound the massive ship plowed into the docks. Almost immediately a number of binomes flew over the rails on zip-boards, brandishing club-like file lockers. The Mainframe binomes doubled their efforts to run screaming as the invaders chased them down and encased them in jade blocks.

A zero binome dressed entirely in black jumped up on the ship's rails. "Excellent work men! Now go out and find me plunder! And don't forget, any nome that brings in unused pretties will be forced to scrub the laundry!"

"Aye, aye sir!" the invaders chorused, then scattered into the sector.

*****

Ranma had just returned from another fight with Akane. Of course he hadn't left under his own power. No, Akane had malleted him, straight into an energy surge. So he had returned to his apartment a she. That meant a quick electron shower, so she had retired to the bathroom. Without looking she had turned on the shower and turned to put Glitch on the vanity. She had then turned back to shower cubicle and pulled open the door to find...

"SHAMPOO!" Ranma-chan cried in surprise, falling away from the shower door.

"Ranma!" the naked sprite cried, leaping out of the running shower to embrace the Guardian.

It took a few moments for Ranma-chan to collect herself. "Shampoo, what were you doing in my shower?"

The cute sprite shrugged. "Shampoo in neighborhood and know you not mind."

"So why wasn't the shower going?" Ranma-chan asked. Unnoticed by the pair of sprites, two binomes sneaked in through a small window high in one wall.

"Shampoo just finished when she hear Ranma come in. She surprised speechless." One of the binomes grabbed Glitch off the bench.

"I'd prefer if you'd warned me," Ranma-chan told her. She sighed. "Could you let go so I could put on some clothing bitmaps?" In the background the second binome pulled out a strange device and pointed at the two female sprites. The first shook his head and indicated the window.

Shampoo frowned and let go of Ranma-chan. "If Ranma want." The two sprites touched there Icons, their bodies fuzzing and to reappear covered with their usual garb. In the background the two binomes snuck out without the sprites noticing.

"Well if you don't mind I was going to take a shower and change back," Ranma-chan told her. "But I'll escort you to the door first." She turned to the bench, arm outstretched. "Glitch, co-- hey, where's Glitch?!"

Shampoo and Ranma-chan quickly scanned the room.

"Window wasn't open eariler." Shampoo pointed out.

Ranma-chan looked at the now open window. She leapt over to it, grabbing the sill and pulling herself up to look out. She caught a glimpse of the two binomes as they flew away on zip-boards.

"Damn, software pirates," Ranma-chan dropped to the ground. "And they stole Glitch!"

*****

The door to the Nekohanten jingled as it was pushed open, causing the inhabitants to turn. Akane, defender of Mainframe, walked into the restaurant. She ignored the continuing gazes as she scanned the room. Finding an empty table, she headed for it.

Mousse slid up, moving just beyond her and turning to move backwards with her. "And so, how is Mainframe's ex-most-eligible-sprite?" the server inquired.

In answer Akane reached up and slapped him, sending him spinning off along his bar. After a few moments he managed to stop and held his head as he swayed. "Better I see," he commented groggily. Recovering, he zipped over to the table Akane had seated herself at. "How may I serve you ma'am?"

"TWICE!" Akane exclaimed. "TWICE IN A SINGLE CYCLE!"

Mousse blinked, or more to the point, his eye pixels vanished for a second. "Excuse me, you wish to be served twice in a single cycle?" Akane glared at him. "Oh, I see, you were referring to Ranma saving you."

Akane's glare darkened. "Thank you so much for reminding me."

Mousse pulled back slightly. "You brought it up."

She frowned. "Bring me a quantum shake, heavy on the quarks," she demanded.

Mousse saluted. "Yes, ma'am!" He zoomed off towards the kitchen.

Akane turned her gaze on a few of the binomes, who immediately pretended they were doing something else. The sprite snorted, 'You'd think they had better things to do than gossip about me.'

The door jingled again as a one binome entered. He was wearing a lopsided cloth cap and carried a bundle of what looked like newspapers under his arms. "Anyone wanna buy a newsdoc?" he inquired. "Latest on the Guardian-Defender love affair."

Silence hit the room like a brick. It didn't take the luckless sprite more than a few nanos to realize something was wrong. Quaking in terror he turned towards the soft growl coming from one of the booths. Akane slowly raised herself out of her chair. The news-nome jumped into the air, sending files flying everywhere as he shot out the door.

Mousse, coming out of the kitchen, watched the door slam backwards and forwards for a few seconds before gliding over to Akane's table. "Please, ma'am, don't scare the customers, it's bad for business," the file server scolded her playfully, placing the cup before her.

Akane opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a vid window popping up over the table. "Akane, could you come to the principal office please?" Kasumi asked. She didn't wait for an answer, closing the window before the sprite could reply.

"That was unlike her," Mousse commented.

"Something's up," Akane declared and sprinted out the door, slamming it into the wall outside.

"That door's not going to last very long," the server observed.

*****

Shampoo and Ranma had tracked the software pirates to the docks. They hid behind a building, watching as the invaders flew in from various parts of the sector.

"Ranma, look," Shampoo hissed, pointing.

Ranma turned to see four young binomes running along the sea front, chased by a pair of pirates. The first binome, a one, was wearing an orange jacket and a green hat that flopped down over his ears. Immediately behind him ran another one binome in a brown jacket and a blue knit hat with a red pompom on the top. A short distance behind him was a zero binome, wearing a red jacket and looking decidedly fat. Bringing up the rear was a one binome in an orange parka that covered him leaving one his eye visible.

"Come on fat nome, you're falling behind!" the first binome yelled.

"I'm not fat just big boned," the fat binome returned, puffing.

"Mrmpf Mrm Mrrm mrf," the last one announced.

Before any of his companions could answer one of the pirates struck the parka clad youth with a file locker. The jade block teetered on the edge for a few seconds before slipping over and plummeting into the sea below.

"OH MY CODE!! THEY DELETED KENNY!! THE SPAMMERS!!" One of the kids yelled.

Ranma shook his head. He couldn't believe that a young binome had lost his life to such a bad joke.

*****

Nabiki and Kasumi stood in the 's office, watching a display window when Akane entered. The window showed the sectors of Mainframe. A quick glance showed that one of the sectors was darkened.

"What's processing?" Akane inquired.

Nabiki looked around. "Kits sector has gone down. We had reports of a strange ship at the docks then the commlinks went down."

Akane frowned in thought. "Are the CPUs ready?"

Kasumi nodded. "In a wait state down on the flight deck."

"Where's Ranma?" she asked.

Nabiki shrugged. "Out of contact, so he's probably in Kits."

"Right. Give the CPUs clearance to launch the moment I'm down there," Akane directed, turning towards the door.

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "Wait a nanosecond Akane, I'm coming too."

*****

Aboard the pirate ship the last of the pirates dumped their booty on the deck and passed a small device to a zero binome wearing a pair of glasses. Ignoring the plunder this zero binome carefully carried the device to a large machine sitting on the deck and inserted it. The machine would then fizzle and spark and out would pop a collect of... women's panties, creating an ever growing pile on the deck.

One of the pirate binomes walked up beside the zero binome. "Arrg, the captain must be pleased with this haul Mr Christen."

"Oh, yes indeed," the zero replied in a slightly nasal voice. "He hasn't come out yet, which is always a good sign."

"Well, maybe you should run and get him!" a male voice cried from behind them. The crew turned to find a pair of blue skinned sprites standing balanced on the side rail.

"And wh--" the pirate started defiantly. He was interrupted by a black blur shooting out of the pile of women's undergarments, bouncing once on the deck and then glomping onto Shampoo's chest.

"EEEEK!" Shampoo screamed, smashing the binome off her. "What this?" She started pounding the thing into the deck.

Suddenly Shampoo flew straight up past the Crow's Nest before crashing to deck. She got to her feet, swayed for a few seconds then fell into a dazed heap on the deck. Ranma turned his turn his head to look from Shampoo to the binome that had thrown her.

"Who are you?" Ranma demanded.

"I am the Black Binome!" he announced, gesturing grandly. Sure enough he was a zero binome dressed entirely in black.

Ranma nodded. "I've heard of you. Happosai, terror of systems and hero of Women's Lingerie stores all over the net." Ranma somersaulted off the rail into a ready stance on the deck.

"Well boy, I see you're a fighter. Good, you can face me and lose!! HAHAHAHA!" Happosai cackled.

Ranma raised an eyebrow. "I'm glad someone's having fun."

The black binome dove forward, brandishing a pipe it had pulled from somewhere. A single tap with the pipe sent the surprised Ranma smashing into the deck, file locked.

"Take them and clap them in irons," Happosai ordered, "and don't forget to extract the girl's pretties."

*****

Akane, Nabiki and the CPUs arrived just in time to see the large sailing ship zap into distance. The group stood at the end of the pier, looking confused.

One of the newly freed binomes turned to them. "The Guardian and another blue sprite went on board!" he exclaimed.

"Oh that's just alphanumeric," Nabiki remarked sarcastically.

Akane turned and looked around the docks. "That one," she announced, pointing at a sleek private launch sitting nearby.

Nabiki studied it for a moment. "Good eye, that's Chumley's new yacht, fastest in all Mainframe." She smiled. "This should be fun."

The Chumleys, a pair of rich one binomes, watched in despair as the CPU's took over his yacht. "On who's authority?" Mr Chumley demanded.

Akane tossed the flat rectangle shape of a PDA at the binome. Kasumi smiled happily from the screen. "Hello, how are you?" she inquired sweetly.

"Oh, the , of course." Mr Chumley deflated.

"Right, lets get moving," Akane ordered.

Nabiki nodded and hurried through to the wheelhouse before realizing that she was following Akane's orders for once. Shrugging Nabiki set the course, then handled the wheel over to a binome so she could join Akane standing on the aft deck. She was staring at the dock as it receded.

As they watched a large dog trotted up to the end of the pier, gazing at them sadly. It was a strange dog, the size of a pony, it's bitmap red and yellow.

"If I didn't know better I'd say that dog wanted to join us," Akane commented.

"Well, he'll never make that jump," Nabiki returned.

THUMP! The ship rocked as the large dog landed on the deck.

"Of course, I could be wrong," Nabiki muttered. "That is one strange looking mutt."

Akane knelt down next to the dog, putting her arms around his neck. "I think he's cute. I'll call him Frisket."

"CUTE?!" Nabiki choked. "You're not serious. He's a data dump dog."

Akane spotted something and frowned slightly. "Look at this, someone stabbed him. What kind of basic sprite would do that to a dog?"

Nabiki wandered back towards the wheelhouse, muttering something about her sister and strays.

*****

Ranma groaned and sat up. Shampoo lay not far away, curled up in a ball. The cell was a simple room. There was a bed, a chair, glowing energy bars and the required graffiti on the walls. A single guard sat outside the cell, watching them.

When Shampoo stirred, Ranma shot to her side. "Are you okay?"

"Shampoo fine," the sprite replied as Ranma helped her to her feet. "No, feels like Shampoo missing something." She patted herself down. "Grrrr. Pervert Nome steal Shampoo's panties!" Shampoo announced.

Ranma looked surprised. "Off your icon? That's a neat trick."

"Ranma help Shampoo delete pervert captain?"

The guard-nome leapt to his feet. "Hah, you'll never escape this cell. Only one sprite has ever escaped this brig." The binome pointed at the graffiti on the far wall.

Ranma and Shampoo turned to look at the wall. There, amongst declaration of people being here and tally marks, was a quick doodle of a mouse holding a spatula.

"Ukyo?" the pair chorused.

Shampoo turned on the guard. "You let Shampoo out and she not kick you later." She reached out and tried to grab through the bars. There was a crackle and a flash of light and Shampoo was thrown across the room. As she soared her body twisted and shrunk. A small purple and white kitten landed on its feet, looking angry.

The guard stared for a few seconds, while Ranma started backing away. "Ca-ca-ca-ca-CAT!" he screamed. He leapt up into the roof corner, hugging the roofing beam. "CAT, CAT, CAT!"

Neko-Shampoo walked over to the corner and looked up at Ranma. "Mew?"

"HELP! CAT!" Ranma yelled, terror in his voice.

The guard started laughing. "Oh, this is good, a Guardian scared of a little sprite like that. I've got to get the guys in to see this." He hurried up the stairs to the hatch, and was gone. When he returned with a small parade of pirates, they found that the bars of the cell had been shredded.

"Maybe the Guardian had good reason to be scared of that thing," commented one as he glanced around the empty brig.

*****

Nabiki glanced at the PDA sitting on the control panel. In the display Kasumi could been seen examining something before her.

"I've located the portal they used to enter the system," the announced. "You're going to have to speed up if you want to catch them before they reach it."

"We're already travelling thirty pixels over spec. I can't get anymore speed without a major upgrade," Nabiki returned.

"Then we may have just lost Ranma and Shampoo," Kasumi pointed out sadly.

"We can always hope for a miracle."

"Oh," Kasumi cried suddenly.

Nabiki turned to stare at the screen. "Is that a good oh, or a bad oh?"

"They've stopped. I don't know why, but they've stopped."

Nabiki grinned. "Ranma."

*****

Happosai watched in horror as the middle mast crashed into the rear rigging. Binomes ran around the deck yelling.

"WHAT IS GOING ON?!" he demanded from the poop deck.

One of the binomes skidded to a halt. "Sir, it's the Guardian. He's gone mad and is tearing up the ship!"

"Gone mad?! What do you mean?" The black binome yelled.

"He's acting like a cat and clawing up everything in sight. He's knocked out the rudder and disabled all three masts. We're dead in the water!"

"Pull out the oars. Make for the portal. And kill file that Guardian!"

*****

The slaves in the galley's hold were all chained to the massive oars that could, in an emergency, propel the ship. A single binome watched over them and beat out the stroke timing on a drum. He was a massive brute of a one, everyone on board was scared of him, except the captain. Thus it was a surprise to the captured binomes when he suddenly disappeared behind his large drum.

A small purple and cream cat jumped up on the drum and, to the sound of fighting and cries of pain, starting thumping out a jazzy rhythm with her little paws. The slaves, giving up their rowing, swung backwards and forward jiving in time with the cat's beat.

One of the binomes, a one wearing a navy blue suit and felt hat and sunglasses turned to his neighbor. "That is one cool cat."

After a few nanoseconds a blue sprite poked his head over the drum.

"Merrow?" the sprite asked.

"Mew!" the cat replied.

The sprite bounced over the drum, landing on hands and feet in the middle of the slaves. He waved a curled hand at the binomes, who winced as streaks of light flew past them. There was a loud clank as the manacles fell to the ground.

The binomes cheered as they charged out the door.

*****

The Mainframe yacht pulled up along side the listing sailing ship. The sprites and binomes stared at the floating wreck in surprise. One the masts leaned heavily against another while the third hung over the edge, attached only by its rigging. The port nacelle was barely attached, leaving the ship leaning heavily to that side.

A one binome poked his head over the rails. "Ho, ship, care to give us a tow back to port?"

Nabiki and Akane shared a disbelieving glance.

"Is Ranma up there?" Akane shouted.

"If you're talking about the Guardian he's a little, uh, indisposed at the moment." The binome turned to look off to one side, then winced visibly. "That had to hurt."

Nabiki stepped forward. "Permission to come aboard?" she called.

"Uh, oh yeah, sure, just let us find a ladder or a rope or something."

The pair waited a few nanoseconds before a rope ladder was thrown over the edge. Shrugging Akane gripped the ladder and climbed up it. She pulled herself over the railings and stare in wonder at the scene before her. Binomes busied themselves trying to repair the damage to the ship.

She spotted Ranma almost immediately. He was curled up on the main deck batting at a binome dressed all in black and hanging from a rope attached to one of the spars. The strangest thing was he wasn't touching the binome, but the binome was being hit. Thankfully the black binome seemed to be unconscious.

"Wha?!" Akane managed intelligently.

Ranma's head popped up and he fixed his gaze on Akane. With a single bound he pounced on her, knocking her to the ground. Akane was surprised when he curled up in her lap and started purring.

Shampoo emerged from below decks. "Shampoo finally find shower," she announced. "Oh, violent defender girl here. Good." She frowned. "Why Ranma sit in her lap?"

Nabiki grunted as she pulled herself over the railings. She took in the scene and laughed. "Oh dear, this is good."

Akane was becoming frustrated. "Someone tell me what's going on here."

"Genma-Ranma-Father idiot," Shampoo stated. "Teach Ranma Nekoken." She frowned sadly. "Ranma scared of cats, fear get bad, Ranma become one. Not good."

Nabiki looked around. "Ranma did all of this in this Nekoken?" she asked in disbelief. Shampoo nodded in answer. "So how do we get him out of it?"

Shampoo shrugged. "Shampoo not know, no one stupid enough to use Nekoken since her history file began."

Akane reached out to stroke Ranma's hair. "Nice kitty."

Neko-Ranma's reaction was to raise his head and kiss her lips. A quiet "oh" went up from the surrounding binomes, followed by a silence born of expectation.

"JERK!" Akane cried, and slammed her fist down on Ranma's head.

Ranma groaned. "What hit me?"

"I see. That's how," Nabiki commented dryly.

*****

The little creature looked like a mobile triangle, except for the large pair of eyes stuck to the top. Turtle, for that was its name, glided through the weird misshapen city. Lost Angles was an unusual place in Mainframe, for one thing it was a sector by itself, connected to the rest of the city by a single twisted bridge. Whatever it had once been Lost Angles was now a place that only two types of sprite visited, the random and the nulled.

Turtle was neither. In fact Turtle was part of the reason sprites feared Lost Angles. If he wasn't enough of a reason there was always his mistress, the fragmented, but powerful virus, Kodachi.

The small sprite shot at full speed along the street, stopped, then turned seventy-six degrees to the right and shot forward again. He reached a large hole in the ground, turned ninety degrees down so he pointing into it and once more zipped forward.

After a short trip (full of stops to correct his course) he arrived in a large chamber that could only by described as gothic. The domed ceiling rose majestically over the raised dais on which sat the virus herself. Kodachi was a female virus, tall and lean. She was always clad in what looked like a black skintight suit the covered her entire body. Her face was covered by a bit mask, white and at the moment sad.

"Ah, Mr Turtle," she greeted warmly, her mask switching to a smile, "what do you have for me?"

Mr Turtle split into two pieces, hinged at his back, revealing a mouth full of wicked looking teeth. He snapped a couple of times then blurred into motion. Weaving all over the space before Kodachi he left lines in the air behind him. After a few nanoseconds a two-dimensional picture of Ranma hung in the air.

Kodachi reached out and stroked her pet. "Yes, he is handsome. I glad you showed him to me. I think I might have some fun." Kodachi leant back and cackled with glee.

*****

The return trip to Mainframe was long, but uneventful. Shampoo made her excuses and headed off to the Nekohanten, while Nabiki made plans with the ex-slave binomes to repair the ship. She said she had an idea that would make them a tidy profit.

That left Ranma and Akane alone to return to the principal office to report back to Kasumi. With, much to Ranma's discomfort, Akane's new dog Frisket. Kasumi nodded knowingly and logged their reports into Mainframe's read only room.

As they left Akane turned to Ranma. "I've got some procedures to run, could you take care of Frisket for me? Maybe give him a bath?"

Ranma looked at Akane, then at the dog. Frisket growled. "I don't think he likes me much Akane," Ranma pointed out.

"Oh Frisket will be good," she gently reached down and scratched behind his ear, "won't you boy?" Frisket whined appreciatively, then gave a quick nod. "That's a good boy."

Grudgingly Ranma agreed and took the dog back to his apartment. He led the oversized hound into the bathroom. "Well, a shower won't do you any good," he commented, "so I guess I'll have to use the furo for once."

He touched a control on the wall and a section of the floor sunk away, leaving a large tub in the center of the room. "Well, in you get. The faster we get this over with, the sooner we can get around to ignoring each other."

"Waoff!" the dog agreed and leapt into the tub.

Ranma touched the control, setting them to fill the bath. He turned back and his jaw dropped in shock. "H-how did you get here?"


	5. v 1,5

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.5: Okonomiyaki on the Brain

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

RyoGA: I lived in the games.

My format: AI,

Designed to play and defeat the user.

My life was nothing ,

Until I met the Mainframers.

Now I join the fight ,

For the our lives and freedom.

*****

Silicon Tor was one of the most feared places in Mainframe. Oh, Lost Angles was indeed a place to fear, but it seemed distant. The Tor, rising above the surrounding sectors like a snake, was the home of Mainframe's tyrant in the making, the virus Kuno. It was from here that schemes to take over Mainframe were launched, not purely for conquest's sake, but to win the heart of Mainframe's Defender, Akane and, more recently, his pig-tailed goddess.

Who said evil geniuses had to be smart?

Wihtin the confines of the Tor construction teams were hard at work refitting an Armoured Binome Carrier for a very special job. As Kuno watched the workers started pulling away.

A dark blue binome at his side turned as a vid window closed. "My lord, the crews report that the vehicle is complete," he reported.

"Good," Kuno smiled wickedly. "Now all we need is the pilot."

A pair of footfalls on the platform behind them announced a new arrival. "That would be me, honey," a strong female voice declared.

Kuno slowly turned. With one hand on her hip the intruder calmly regarded the virus. She wore a white top that hugged her lilac skin and trousers that hugged her form. Flame red hair topped her head, glowing with a light of its own. A bandoleer hung loosely over her shoulder, filled with small spatulas. A larger spatula was strapped across her back.

Kuno's eyes half closed and his lips curled into a smug smile. "Ah, Ukyo my dear, it is a joy to be in your presence, but I must inquire, how did you manage to gain entrance to my fortress?"

Ukyo buffed her fingernails and returned the smile, revealing fangs. "Ah, but a good hacker never reveals her secrets, darlin'." She saunter over to the railings and lent over to stare at the ABC. "She looks like a good ship." She spun around to find Kuno towering over her. "When do I leave?"

"All in due time, Ukyo. All in due time," the virus assured her. "You should know that the compression command is old and the field is unstable, it could fail at any stage."

Ukyo strolled across to inspect some equipment. "Well, that's what you pay me the big bytes for, isn't it honey?" She gave up looking at the monitors. "Let's get on with, time is profit and all that MOD."

"Ah, a sprite after my own heart."

"I don't want ya heart, sugah, just your data."

*****

Nabiki absently hummed along to the music as the elevator doors opened. Things at the docks had gone well. "The Saucy Mare," the ship Ranma and Shampoo had rescued from the software pirates, was under new ownership and repairs were already underway. The new crew, seeking adventure on the net, had readily agreed to go into partnership with her in a shipping firm, helping move data around the systems. It was going to be a profitable venture.

Mainframe's Indexer stepped from the elevator at the same moment Ranma crashed through his door. She stared in shock as the Guardian got to his feet. "That was a real low density blow, you random game sprite!" he yelled, then charged back into the room.

Nabiki sighed. Just once she'd like to be able to have a meeting with Ranma and not have it interrupted.

"Ranma Saotome, this is all your fault, PREPARE TO DIE!" a voice screamed from inside.

Nabiki's eyes opened wide and if she'd been a more comical sprite, her jaw would have dropped. She recognised that voice, but that was impossible. In a flash she was at Ranma's door, where she saw Ranma trading punches with another sprite they'd all thought lost. "RyoGA?!"

The two fighters stopped, and turned to look at the door.

"Oh, hi Nabiki, look who showed up," Ranma said, sitting atop RyoGA, his fist pulled back ready to slug the game sprite.

"B-but, how? You said he was deleted in the game," Nabiki looked from one to the other.

Ranma smiled. "He's got me to thank for that."

"AND EVERYTHING ELSE!" RyoGA yelled, throwing Ranma off. The Guardian flipped once and landed on his feet halfway across the room.

"Backspace. What are you two talking about?"

"Well after RyoGA quit filed I picked up his sword. At the time I didn't realise it, but after the game I still had it. I must of dropped it when Akane sent me on that trip, and somehow," Ranma glared at RyoGA, who sidled uncomfortably, "the code in the sword reformed into RyoGA here. I'm guessing the sword was linked to my code somehow, probably a function of my corruption."

Nabiki crossed her arms and tapped a finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, that would suggest that at least some of his code comes from you." She looked at RyoGA. "So do you turn into a girl too?"

RyoGA glanced around nervously. "Ah, no..."

Nabiki eyes narrowed. "Ranma, where's Akane's dog? She asked me to get him while I was here."

RyoGA was becoming positively wild eyed.

He was saved, in a fashion, by Ranma. "Nabiki, it wasn't his fault, he didn't know he could change back."

Nabiki walked over to the game sprite. "Okay, I'll let it slide." She poked him in the chest. "Just don't try anything mister."

RyoGA nodded. Nabiki was a smaller sprite than RyoGA but still found himself intimidated by her.

"Warning: Incoming Game!" The female computer voice announced.

"Not now!" Ranma cried, dashing out the door.

*****

Ukyo sat in the pilot's seat of the ABC, running through a systems check. Satisfied that all systems were green she turned to look into the back. "Ready back there sugahs?"

Sasuke and Gosunkugi turned to face her and saluted.

"Ready and able!" Gosunkugi announced.

"Yep, very able!" Sasuke added.

Gosunkugi turned to his partner. "I just said that!"

Sasuke pushed him. "So?!"

Ukyo sighed and turned away. "Dumb bots." She reached out and touched a control, calling up a window.

"Ah, Ukyo. Do I dare hope you are prepared to depart?" The virus smiled.

"Sure am Kuno baby. Did you add the anti-static shielding I asked for?" Ukyo leaned back in her chair, and put her feet up on the console.

"Of course, although you should know it was unnecessary."

"Humour me honey." She reached forward and touched a couple of keys. "Okay Kuno baby, lets do it."

Kuno looked up from the window as it closed. "Kuno baby?" he asked himself. "Activate the command!" he ordered the viral binomes around him.

The viral binomes jumped into action, throwing switches and checking gauges. Energy crackled across a dish pointing at the ABC, collecting into a large glowing ball at the point of the dish. Suddenly the sphere discharged into the ABC, which bulged for a moment, than shrunk to the size of a few pixels.

A window popped up next to Kuno. "Kuno baby, you're a real shrinker," Ukyo joked from the window.

"Surely," Kuno deadpanned. "What is your condition?" he inquired.

Ukyo glanced behind her. "Other than one of your henchbots wanting his mother, we're fine honey." In the background Sasuke could be heard wailing.

"Good, we'll proceed to stage two."

A pair of binomes moved forward, one holding a strange pair of tweezers, the other holding a small vial full of liquid. The tweezers closed gently around the miniature ABC and lifted it from the ground. Slowly and carefully the binome lowered the vehicle into the vial, then released it.

"We have splash down!" Ukyo announced. "See ya from the inside Kuno baby!" Her window vanished.

Kuno took the vial, then opened another vid window. A dark blue zero binome wearing glasses and a false nose stared out at the virus. He glanced to either side, then whispered, "The dragon has flipped backwards and the library has no books."

Kuno blinked lazily. "Pardon?"

The binome shifted uneasily. "Ah, the dragon has--"

"Enough of your double talk, report!" Kuno roared.

The binome jumped. "The Guardian has just left the game and met up with the Indexer and another sprite. They're heading for Al's Diner."

"Excellent." A smaller window opened beneath the vid window and Kuno pushed the vial through. "Take this, you know what to do."

*****

Ranma pushed open the diner door, RyoGA and Nabiki immediately entering behind him. The patrons of the diner all glanced up, then looked back to their meals.

"I don't see why you stopped me!" RyoGA announced.

Nabiki turned her eyes to the heavens. "You're still a game sprite, if you're in a game, you'll leave with it."

"I managed to get out before," he argued.

"By accident. I doubt we can rely on it happening again," Nabiki pointed out. "I'm afraid you'll have to stay out of games until we find some way of reformatting you."

Ranma, ignoring the pair behind him, looked at Al's waiter. "Give me a Quantum shake and add some chocolate quarks!"

"Right..." the waiter replied and opened his mouth.

"Gimme a nano!" a voice cried from the kitchen. Moments later a Quantum shake flew out of the kitchen to land on the bench.

"Wow... Al's... running... fast... today..." Al's waiter observed slowly.

Ranma shrugged, picked up the shake and walked over to the both Nabiki and RyoGA had claimed.

"Did he have to shoot me though?!" RyoGA demanded.

"Sorry, it was the only way I could stop you on such short notice." Ranma shrugged. "It was just a force bolt."

"It turned me into a DOG!" RyoGA's exclamation brought stares from some of the other patrons.

"Sorry about that." Ranma brought the Quantum shake's straw to his lips.

"What is that?" RyoGA asked.

Ranma held the shake away from him and studied it. "A Quantum shake. Here, have a try."

RyoGA took the shake and sipped it.

*****

Inside Al's kitchen the viral binome hopped down off the stool. He rubbed his hands gleefully and turned to his two comrades guarding the bound cook.

"There, the package has been delivered, lets go report to Lord Kuno."

*****

The ABC shook violently as it entered the sprite's system. Ukyo grabbed the controls, levelling it out. She touched a button, bringing up a map on the display. A second touch brought up a vid window.

"I'm in K-chan," Ukyo reported. "Heading for the cerebral interface now."

"Excellent. Report to me when you arrive," Kuno directed.

"Ya mean like I just did," Ukyo replied, looking out the ABC's window. Outside was the glowing blue cyberscape of the sprites mind. Flashes of light shot along pathways and the neural network glistened with power. "Dropping interface, NOW!" Ukyo jabbed a large red button on the console. There was a clunk and the ABC shuddered as the interface module fell away. "Okay, I'm setting her down."

The ABC landed, the rear ramp falling open. Time passed.

"GET OUT THERE YOU DOLTS!" Ukyo and Kuno yelled.

Sasuke and Gosunkugi glided down the ramp.

"They didn't have to yell," Gosunkugi commented.

"Yeah, we'd have done it," Sasuke added.

The pair of robots rolled over to the large case that housed the neural interface device. They looked at each grabbed an end and pulled it. After a few nanoseconds they realised that they were pulling in opposite directions and started pushing. They glared at each other, then managed to agree on a direction. They weaved all over the brainscape before dumping the case down.

"It's set!" Sasuke cried.

"Yep, all in place!" Gosunkugi yelled.

Sasuke reached up and cuffed the bigger robot. "I just told them that."

"So did I," Gosunkugi replied.

Inside the ABC Ukyo looked at Kuno in the window. "Honey, where did you get them? 'Cause I suggest you take them back."

Kuno frowned. "I can't, it was a going out of business sale."

"I can't imagine why." Ukyo leaned forward to hunch over her keyboard. Outside the side of the case opened and large cables squirmed their way out to attach to the ground around them. Lights pulse through the cables. Inside the ABC the screens before Ukyo lit up showing the form of a sprite and a wiring diagram of his nervous system.

"Okay, the device just has to calibrate itself, then we're in."

*****

"...then we had to use the anvil of despair..." Ranma trailed off when he noticed RyoGA suddenly sit bolt upright. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I can't move," RyoGA gasped, then to prove himself wrong, somersaulted onto the table. Ranma, Nabiki and the other diners watched as RyoGA first spun like a top, then half flipped off the table and onto his head. Upside down he waved and flopped his arms all over the place before shooting up and crashing into a light socket.

The diner's lights flickered as RyoGA sparked, then Frisket fell to the floor. The dog raised his head wearily looked at Ranma as if to say "what have you done to me now?" then collapsed.

Nabiki looked at Ranma. "That was unusual."

"Compared to what?"

*****

In the ABC lights flashed and sirens blared. Ukyo turned in anger to the two robots. "Knock off that racket would you!" she snapped.

Sasuke and Gosunkugi put away their flashing lights and toy sirens. They two robots then slunk off into a corner.

"What is going on Ukyo?" Kuno asked from the window.

"We got hit by some kind of energy surge, and now your hardware is saying we're in a dog!" She continued tapping hurriedly on the keyboard. The displays about her blinked, but continued to show the schematic of a dog. "Well sugah, either we've skipped sprites without noticing, or this sprite just morphed into a dog."

Kuno tapped his fingers together thoughtfully. "Hmm, strange. Continue with your hacking, we may find that the Guardian has some very unusual secrets."

"Right," Ukyo agreed. "I'm accessing memory functions now."

On the display in front of her the brain started flashing. "Two plus two equals three." A young voice declared, followed immediately by a harsh sounding buzzer.

"Something does not add up here," Kuno commented.

*****

"Woof, woof, grrr, arf, woof," muttered Frisket.

"Sounds like... he's trying... to talk," Ranma commented from underneath the dog, his voice coming in gasps.

Nabiki stopped and looked at dog. "Nope, he's still out. Come on, the diagnosis bay is just ahead."

"That's easy... for you to say..., you didn't... just carry him..., all the way from Al's... to the Principal Office," Ranma returned.

Nabiki strode on, followed by Ranma carrying Frisket. Nabiki stopped at a door and touched a panel. With a hiss the door opened, giving the trio access to the Principal Office's Diagnosis bay.

The Diagnosis bay was a high tech room where Mainframe's chief diagnostic tool worked. A large table sat in the middle, onto which Ranma dropped the unconscious dog. The walls of the room were covered with monitors and fancy light panels. It looked like something out of a science fiction game.

"Where's the doctor?" Ranma inquired, noticing a distinct lack of that resource.

Nabiki smiled. "We used to have a Doctor Watson, but he left with a sprite called Holmes to start a search engine. Thankfully we had a backup." She looked up at the roof. "Computer, activate Emergency Diagnostic Hologram."

A young man, wearing a black full gi and a pair of glasses materialised in the centre of the room. He was strange because his skin was a strange peachy colour and his short black hair seemed to be made up of lots of strands. "Please state the nature of your diagnostic emergency," the hologram announced in a calm voice. He then turned to smile at the two sprites. "Ah Nabiki, good to see you again. Who is the patient?"

"Hi Doctor Tofu, ah, this dog is the patient." Nabiki waved her hand at Frisket.

Doctor Tofu walked over to the unconscious animal and started examining it. "What are the symptoms observed?"

"He reported being unable to move, then proceeded to break dance across the room until he hit a light socket," Ranma replied.

Tofu stood considering this for a nanosecond. "He reported?"

"He was humanoid at the time. He has a corruption that causes him to transform when hit by random energy," Nabiki explained.

"Could this corruption be responsible for his behaviour?" Tofu asked.

"Nope," Ranma answered. "Pop and I never did that before, be useful at parties though."

Tofu turned to regard Ranma. "You have a similar corruption?" Ranma nodded. Returning to his patient the doctor pulled out a scope and poked it into the dog's ear.

*****

Inside Frisket's head a long tube shot out the darkness. An eye within the tube blinked a couple of times, then looked left, then right, then finally focused on the ABC and the pair of robots standing outside of it.

Sasuke pointed up at the eye. "Hey, that's an invasion of our privacy!" he complained.

"Yeah, he shouldn't do that!" Gosunkugi chimed in.

"No, he shouldn't," Sasuke added.

"I just said that."

*****

"He appears to need to get some things off his mind," the doctor stated. "Namely those two robots and the vehicle."

Ranma and Nabiki shared a glance. "Are you saying that Sasuke and Gosunkugi have invaded RyoGA's mind?" the later asked.

"It appears so," Tofu admitted.

"Then someone will have to go in and get them out!" Nabiki declared.

As if on cue the doors to the Diagnosis Bay hissed open and Akane stepped in. "FRISKET!" She charged forward, throwing her arms around the dog's neck. "What's Ranma done to you?!"

"Hey, I didn't do anything," Ranma returned. "Kuno's two henchbots attempted to invade my mind through a spiked Quantum shake, only I gave it him, so they invaded him by accident. Now we have to go in, get them out and save the day."

The diag-bay doors hissed open and Akane and Nabiki stared in horror as the greatest danger to grace the Principal Office's diagnostic bay swept into the room.

"Kasumi!" Tofu cried happily. Taking a hold of Frisket's legs.

CRACK!

Ranma winced. "Ouch, that must hurt."

CRICK!

"I didn't think dogs' spines did that," Akane commented.

CREEK!

"I hope there are no children watching," Nabiki added.

"Oh Doctor Tofu, you're so funny," Kasumi giggled.

*****

Ukyo stared in horror at the screen. "I thought they liked this guy," she commented, shaking her head. She turned to the vid window floating beside her. "Kuno honey, I can't find the codes to the supercomputer anywhere. I don't think we're in the Guardian."

"By all that is corrupt, how could you have made such an error?!" the virus snapped.

Ukyo leant back and held her hands apart in helplessness. "Hey, its not my fault. I'd blame those spies of yours if I was you, sugah."

*****

Ranma looked around the armoury. There was a collection of bombs, guns and missiles. It wasn't the most impressive display he'd ever seen, the Supercomputer's armoury classified for that.

He turned to Kasumi, a worried expression on his face. "This lot isn't much use. If we fire it inside Frisket we'll do some permanent damage."

"This isn't the Supercomputer, Ranma," Kasumi told him, "but I think I may have something."

*****

"Talk about ancient," Ranma commented. He and Akane were lying strapped into a pair of construction tugs. The tugs were nothing more than a yellow frame to hold the pilot with a couple of heavy duty engines strapped to one end. Both sprites were clad in a form hugging black suit with a shaded helmet. This wasn't what Ranma was talking about however.

Kasumi stood next to the old compression command, the emitter dish pointed at the pair. "Remember, you can't leave anything inside Frisket's head."

"We understand sis, hit it," Akane replied.

Kasumi hit a key on the command's panel.

"Hey," Ranma cried, "what are we supposed use for weapons?"

The dish emitted a wide beam across the two tugs and the pair vanished in a blaze of light.

*****

Kuno sat in his throne watching a window that floated before him. The strangely distorted picture showed a room the virus thought he recognised.

"Ukyo my dear, could you possibly turn this animal's head," the Virus inquired.

"Sure honey," the hacker replied, manipulating the controls. The view slowly panned across, showing monitors on the wall before coming to rest on the misshapen figures of Kasumi and Nabiki standing talking.

"Sound," he suggested.

"Yes, sir," Ukyo returned in a sarcastic tone.

"...at fragmented virus gets out of this now?" Nabiki asked her sister.

"Perhaps we should remove him from the principal office," Kasumi suggested, gazing thoughtfully at the dog

Kuno grinned wickedly. "They've brought the animal into the principal office, excellent. Ukyo darling, could you get me manual control over this darling animal's motor control functions?"

"As easy as 3.14159," Ukyo replied.

*****

Ranma-chan sighed as she slid slightly in the straps of the construction tug. She hadn't thought that the background radiation was high enough to activate her corruption, but reality proved otherwise, the moment they had been compressed she had shifted form.

The two construction tugs flew almost silently through the twisting tunnels of the dog's body. Akane was in the lead, soaring around bends at full throttle with Ranma-chan jostling for position in her wake.

Glitch's sudden beeping distracted the Guardian momentarily, forcing her to swerve away from the wall. "Glitch, open comm," Ranma-chan snapped.

Nabiki's face appeared in the screen. She was leaning over the window, almost filling it. As she spoke she shot quick glances over her shoulder. "Ranma, you have to hurry, Frisket's on the move and headed towards the core!"

"THE CORE?!" Ranma-chan exclaimed. "If we go in there we'll be erased! Can't you stop him?!"

Nabiki, glancing over her shoulder and suddenly ducked to one side. With a cry a Binome slammed into the window and slowly slid down. "You're kidding, right?" Nabiki replied flatly.

"We're approaching the neural interface now," Ranma-chan informed her.

From behind Nabiki Ranma-chan heard the faint female voice of the system. "Warning, Mainframe core..." the voice was drowned out by screeching metal.

"Oh my code, he just..!" Nabiki exclaimed before the scene vanished in static.

Ranma-chan frowned as she looked across the blue mindscape. In the distance she could see the familiar form of the ABC, the large box next to it and the two bots lifting off to intercept them.

"Spam!" Ranma-chan cursed. "Hey Akane, lets split up, see if one of us can't lose them and shut down that interface!"

"Okay, I'll wait for you there!" the defender replied.

"Low-res Guardian-wannabe," Ranma-chan muttered.

"I heard that!" Akane yelled back before veering off. Gosunkugi, jetpack roaring, adjusted his course to intercept her, leaving Ranma-chan to his smaller companion. The robot release a hail of energy bolts, which sizzled past Ranma-chan's tug.

"Heh," Ranma-chan snorted. "No bot's gonna shoot me down, even in this tub." She shoved the control bars forward, and with the scream of jets, the tub dived towards the ground below.

Sasuke, rolled and arced towards the falling tug, continuing to fire. Deadly bolts of energy flashed past the Guardian. Watching her pursuer closely, Ranma waited until just the right moment, then jerked back on the controls.

The tug flipped up, nose suddenly pointed straight at the rocketing bot. Ranma-chan grinned maniacally at Sasuke as they roared towards each other.

"Mummy!" Sasuke screamed, throwing his arms across his head.

At the last moment Ranma-chan's tug banked suddenly, pulling away. "Too stupid to even dodge," the Guardian commented.

Meanwhile Akane was weaving throwing a network of columns that stretched from the ground to the distant roof above. Gosunkugi's blasts exploded to either side of her. Suddenly the side of Frisket's head loomed up before her, and only Akane's fast reactions saved her. Her tug pulled up sharply, then flipped and rolled back onto a level course. Akane glanced back to see Gosunkugi halt only a pixel from the wall, then turn to give chase once more.

"AKANE!" Ranma-chan screamed.

Akane snapped her head round to see the other construction tug directly in front of her. Time seemed to slow as she pulled up on the controls. She could see her black clad reflection in Ranma's visor as he slid under her. The was a quite clink as the two tugs barely touched. Time resumed its normal speed as the pair sped away from their almost fatal meeting.

Moments later there were a pair of screams and an almighty crash as Kuno's two henchbot's collided.

*****

The sound of something raining down on the ABC disturbed Ukyo from her work. She looked up from the game of hearts on the screen before her to see a domed head fall on the hood of the vehicle. She looked at the bot's head, who blinked back at her.

"Its raining bots, hallelujah," Ukyo commented. Reaching over her shoulder she drew the massive spatula, then dashed over to the door. She pushed herself into the corner.

A figure, obviously a woman, suited entirely in black, wearing a black helmet, stepped through the open door. The figure looked around, then turned to face out the door. "Looks..."

Ukyo swung the spatula with all her strength. The flat of the fighting utensil struck the back of the woman's helmet with a mighty clang. The strange collapsed forward to the ground, Ukyo immediately stepped out, Spatula raised for the deletion blow.

A second figure, dressed exactly like the first collided with Ukyo, knocking her off her feet. Ukyo tried to bring her Spatula round, but her opponent grabbed the handle and start wrestling with her.

Ukyo shoved her opponent across the cabin, who grunted in pain. The other woman immediately rallied and shoulder barged Ukyo back. Off balance, Ukyo toppled backwards, but turned the fall into a chance to flip her opponent. The other woman flew over Ukyo's head as she rolled and somersaulted onto her feet. She spun around to face her foe, only to received a fist to the gut. Ukyo stumbled backwards, winded by the blow.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Ukyo hissed through clenched teeth. One arm wrapped around her stomach, she raised the other fist and pointed her ring at her enemy. She grinned as a mass energy noodles streamed out to wrap around her foe. The black suited girl gave a startled cry, then slumped to the floor.

"Ucchan!" a female voice cried happily. Ukyo turned to find that the first attacker had regained her feet and removed her helmet, revealing a familiar red head.

"Ranma?" Ukyo asked incredulously. "It is! Long process no see."

"Last time I saw you was that time you tried to hack into the supercomputer," Ranma-chan smiled brightly and walked across the cabin.

"You know I let you stop me."

"Hah! If I hadn't caught you, there were another twenty Guardians just round the corner."

"Yeah, right."

"Excuse me!" Akane snapped, from her sitting position. "I'd like to remind you that while you two are reminiscing, Frisket is walking straight into the core."

"Spam, she's right. If we don't get us and this dog out of here, the core energies will delete us!"

Ukyo frowned. "Now why would Kuno-chan do something like that?"

"It would give him access to the core of Mainframe, and he doesn't care if he has to sacrifice you to do it!" Ranma-chan exclaimed.

Ukyo opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted when a vid window popped open. Ranma-chan dived out of sight as Ukyo walked back to the pilot's seat to face Kuno.

"Good work beauteous Ukyo," the virus commented. "I'll make sure there's a bonus in this for you."

"Kuno sugah, Ranma just told me you've guided us into the core. Is that true?"

"Now would I do something like that?" Kuno inquired with mock sincerity.

"That's what I thought. Sorry honey, I'm pulling the plug." Ukyo reached down and tapped a control on the panel. The displays about her plinked closed.

"NNNNOOOOO!" Kuno howled, he leant forward. "You will pay for foiling me!"

"Bye-bye sugah!" Ukyo closed the vid window. "Ranma honey, will you go grab the bot bits outside while I warm up the ABC."

"Right!" Ranma-chan dashed out the door.

"Hey!" Akane cried, still trapped in the energy food. "Grrr."

*****

Frisket, walking through the bright light, blinked and shook his head. He looked around, seeing only white in all directions except one. it took only a moment for him to decide to charge off.

In the wrong direction.

Somehow he still managed to get out.

*****

Ranma-chan sat in the co-pilots seat as Ukyo manipulated the controls. The ABC's engine hummed as it lifted off the ground and slowly turned to fly across the two tugs and the interface box. A single touch of the button dropped a series of bombs, destroying the three objects.

"The containment field is weakening," Ranma-chan reported. "You'd better hit the afterburners, cause we are gonna get far too big for this mutts head."

"Right, straight towards the nasal cavity."

"Why?"

Ukyo shrugged. "Tradition."

The ABC dove into the twisting tunnel leading to Frisket's nose. Even as it weaved along the tunnel it started to grow, leaving less and less clearance between the wall and the vehicle.

"Ukyo, watch it, things are getting tight," Ranma-chan cautioned.

"Stop telling me things I already know!" Ukyo snapped, not taking her eyes off the shrinking tunnel before her.

Ranma-chan felt a tickling on her bitmap. She glanced at the panel before her. "Static shielding just failed," she reported. The moment the words left her mouth the ABC struck the side of the tunnel, bouncing wildly off the wall. Ranma-chan immediately grabbed the controls and right the vehicle.

"You okay?" Ranma-chan glanced at the empty seat beside her. She immediately double-taked.

"Akane, hold tight, we just lost our pilot!" Ranma-chan called.

"Hold tight!?!" Akane yelled. "HOW?! I'm still in the stasis field!!"

"Oh, Gosunkugi," a shrill voice squealed, "look where your hand is!"

"I'll never wash it again!" the deeper voice sighed.

"RANMA!!"

*****

Frisket wandered along the corridors. Neither RyoGA nor Frisket had been inside Mainframes Principal Office before, so he was lost. Of course ever since he'd left the game he'd been lost, Mainframe was just too strange a place.

He was glad when Nabiki, Kasumi and a group of CPUs came running up.

"There you are Frisket," Nabiki panted, out of breath.

"Looks like he's no longer under Kuno's control," Kasumi commented lightly. Her smile warmed Frisket.

Something tickled Frisket's nose. Her raised his head.

"GET CLEAR!" Nabiki screamed and she and the others dived to the side.

AACHOO! The ABC exploded from Frisket's nose, crashing to the ground before him.

"Bless you," Kasumi said automatically.

The back door of the ABC fell open, the ramp crashing to the ground. Ranma-chan stood leaning against the doorway. "Am I good or what?"

Nabiki smiled. "Nice timing Ranma."

"Oh, I had some help."

Kasumi frowned. "Ranma, where's Akane?"

Ranma-chan glanced over her shoulder. "Ah, can you two wait a few nanos before you release her? I need time to get away."

"RANMA YOU JERK!"

*****

Kuno sat in his throne, considering his latest defeat. The Guardian had defeated him again. How could such a wretched sprite continue to foil his plans?!

His thoughts were interrupted by the incessant beeping of the intercom. He slammed his fist on the pad, causing a window to open. "WHY DO YOU DISTURB ME?!" he snarled at the startled binome in the window.

"Ah, sir, the has sent Sasuke and Gosunkugi back," the binome reported.

Kuno groaned, that was hardly a blessing. "Send them in."

"Yes Lord Kuno!" The vid window snapped shut.

Kuno waited for a few nanoseconds. "Where are those two fools?!"

"Down here boss!" a tiny voice squeaked.

"Yeah boss, we're down here!"

Kuno leant forward to find the pair of miniaturised robots at his feet. "The Lady Kasumi has an... interesting sense of humour."

*****

Nabiki turned on the static shower, then turned to the dog. "There, I'll leave you to change," she told the animal then headed to the door. She would have left it to Ranma, unfortunately he was engaged in pleasantries with his fiancee.

As Nabiki closed thee door she totally failed to notice a grey blur shot through the door.

She was only a short way down the corridor when RyoGA's startled cryl broke the silence. Twirling she saw the game sprite crash through the door.

"Honey, is that any way to treat a gal?"


	6. v 1,6,1

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.6.1: Kodachi Strikes

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Shampoo: Shampoo searches the net,

through systems, people and cities,

looking for Ranma.

Her format: Provider,

to serve all sprites.

Shampoo run the Nekohanten,

Mainframes best restaurant.

*****

The door to the Nekohanten jangled open and the lilac skinned form of Ukyo sauntered in. Ignoring the stares from the binomes seated at the tables she regarded the approaching file server.

"'allo Mousse," she greeted with a smile.

Mousse jerked to a stop, and adjusted his glasses. "Well, well if it isn't Ukyo." He scanned the tables, comparing them to his expected tip. There were a number of empty tables, all situated in desirable places. He waved his hand at the girl. "Wait at the bar."

"No thanks suga', I can see my table from here." Ukyo strolled across the room, followed by the server, and took a seat at Akane's usual table. She turned to look at Mousse. "So Mousse, what happened to you? When we were in Jusenkyo you were a little more ambulatory."

Mousse gave her a tragic look. "A casualty of our journeys through the net I'm afraid. Shampoo and I got caught in a wild data stream. The loss of my legs was a small sacrifice to pay for my beloved's safety."

"I'm sure," Ukyo replied, unimpressed.

"Now if only she'd get beyond this desire to link with Saotome, we'd be happy together."

Ukyo smirked. "Mousse darling, I doubt you'll ever..." she trailed off as his words sank in. "SHE WHAT?!"

Mousse shrank back from the looming female. He briefly wondered what it was about girls and hitting him that went so well together. "She wants to link with Saotome," he replied without thinking.

Ukyo seethed. "I don't believe this! She's trying to steal MY Ran-chan!" The hacker rose from her table and stormed out the door.

*****

Ranma searched the streets below. He didn't understand how a single sprite managed to get so lost so easily. You really couldn't get more lost in Mainframe if you tried.

Asking for help was a problem. Not knowing whether he was looking for Frisket or RyoGA made questioning people a risk. If he spent all his time asking after the pair someone would sooner or later put two and two together.

He glanced up towards G-Prime. Kuno's sector. Going in there would cause trouble, and probably gain him a following of ABCs. It was also the only place Ranma hadn't looked.

Turning back to watch the streets below his car Ranma was glad when he spotted his quarry heading straight into G-Prime. Either RyoGA was brave, foolish or had no idea where was heading. In all likelyhood the last.

Ranma dove the car, so it spiralled down towards the game sprite. At the last moment he pulled up and screeched to a stop next to a startled RyoGA. "Hey, been searching for you all over!" Ranma exclaimed.

"RANMA!" RyoGA cried. "DO THAT AGAIN AND I'LL KILL YOU!!"

Ranma shrugged. "Come on. Kasumi wants to see ya." He waited until RyoGA was in the car before taking off again. "So where've you been?"

"Just looking around for a while," RyoGA answered. "I found the most interesting old man, he was selling these things he called logic probes."

The car dipped suddenly as Ranma gasped. "LOGIC PROBES?! There's a Hacker's Guild in Mainframe?! Where?!"

"How would I know? I've been almost permanently lost since I arrived in Mainframe. I mean, how far is a pixel anyway?"

Ranma groaned. There was a highly illegal organisation in Mainframe, and he couldn't even find them, let alone shut them down. Just great.

*****

Shampoo stood on the stairs outside the Principal Office, staring out across the system. Not far away Nabiki and Akane stood talking in quiet whispers.

"Why shouldn't I go in?" Akane hissed.

Nabiki shrugged. "Ranma is more likely to recover from anything they do. It is, after all, what he's trained for his whole process."

"And what about me?! I've spent my entire process training!"

Nabiki rolled her eyes. "No, you've had to worry about the system as well. Ranma has done nothing but train for the last ten Megacycles and with the Guardians too!"

Akane fumed quietly as Nabiki turned away to walk towards the Amazon sprite. "Sh--"

"SHAMPOO!" The three sprites on the stairs turned to see Ukyo storming towards them, glaring at Shampoo angrily.

"What spatula sprite want?" Shampoo demanded.

"I hear you're after my Ranma honey!"

"Is true. So what?"

"Back off, Guardian Saotome promised that link to me!"

Shampoo produced a pair of bonbori from behind her back. "Ranma is Shampoo's. She delete to keep."

Ukyo reached over her back and pulled out her spatula, holding it ready to slam the blue girl. "Just you try, honey!"

"Ladies, ladies," Nabiki interceded. "You shouldn't be fighting over Ranma, it's his choice after all."

Shampoo lowered her maces. "Indexer right.""

"Yeah, we'll let Ranma decide." Ukyo flung her spatula back into its sheath on her back.

"Besides which, Akane's claim on Ranma is stronger than both of yours," Nabiki added, smiling.

"I am not linking with that CORRUPTED RANDOM..!" Akane exclaimed.

"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT MY RANMA SUGAR LIKE THAT!" "Defender girl not insult Ranma!"

As the three girls argued once more a large red car swooped out of the sky and pulled up next to them. Sitting in the front were Ranma and RyoGA.

"Hey everyone, look who I found wandering into G-Prime!" Ranma called, ignoring the battling girls.

Three pairs of eyes turned to glare at him. "RANMA!"

*****

Kasumi looked around the Principal Office control room. Akane leaned against one wall, arms crossed, fuming quietly while Nabiki made her way up the ramp to Kasumi's side. Standing in the centre of the room Ukyo chattered with RyoGA, who appeared to be having trouble holding up his part of the conversation. The only other data sprite in the room was Shampoo who stood bouncing on her heels.

"Where's Ranma?" the asked as her sister stepped up to her.

"He went to see the diagnostic."

Kasumi frowned, worried. "Is he ill? He looked fine when I sent him to find RyoGA."

Nabiki smirked. "Oh, it was something that hit him very suddenly."

"Will he be okay?"

"He'll be fine in a few nanoseconds, I imagine."

"Good." Kasumi turned back to the three on the floor below. "RyoGA, Ukyo, Shampoo, could I have your attention please?" The three sprites turned to look up at her. "All three of you have expressed an interest in aiding in the defence of this system. While I'm sure all three of you are capable, I'd like to test you to gauge your level of skill. The easiest way to do this is let the three of you try to win a game on your own."

Akane cleared her throat and stepped forward. "Sis, I just realised, neither Ukyo nor RyoGA are formatted for the games. They can't Reboot and when the game leaves then it'll be end of file."

Kasumi stood staring at her for a second. "Oh my, you're right. I guess we'll have to wait until we find a way around that."

"I think I might have an idea," Ukyo announced, "if you don't mind some help ."

"Of course, please do."

Ukyo strode up the ramp and took a seat at the console next to Kasumi. "My idea is to set up an alias between two icons. That way RyoGA and I can borrow the code to Reboot and pretend to be system sprites."

"It could work."

Akane, uninterested in the coding discussion wandered over to talk to RyoGA. As she talked to him Shampoo strode over to Nabiki.

"Why Indexer trust game sprite?!" she whispered.

"I don't, but both Ranma and Akane seem to, so I'm letting it slide for now."

Ukyo's voice carried across the room. "...Guardian code will strengthen..."

"Shampoo keep close eye."

"...use Shampoo's in case Ranma isn't back..." Kasumi was saying.

"Good, I'm glad someone feels the same way I do."

"...connect both ways and keep up a carrier..."

Nabiki frowned. "Shampoo, watch him around Ranma, he's holding a grudge."

"...extra memory?"

"He not hurt my Ranma."

"...use virtual, means the hack won't work outside Mainframe..."

"Also he might be sweet on Akane," Nabiki informed Shampoo.

"...no plans to leave..." Ukyo continued.

The Amazon sprite huffed. "Like Shampoo care."

Kasumi looked up. "Shampoo, RyoGA, could we have your Icons please?"

*****

A small pulse travelled along the stream of light between the two icons. The assembled sprites watched carefully. Ukyo reached forward and plucked her's from the stand. She stood and set the disc on her belt, then clicked on it. The image on the Icon shifted, to the familiar blue and white of Mainframe.

"So, is that all?" Ranma asked.

"Yes thanks Ran-chan."

The Guardian picked up his own Icon and placed it back on his chest. "There going to be any side-efects?"

"Not for you, but RyoGA and I have to be careful not to break the link."

Ranma walked around the console to stand next to Ukyo. "And this'll protect you in the games?"

"So long as either you or Shampoo are present. Unfortunately we couldn't think of a way to download the game code from your Icons."

"Great!" Ranma smiled at her.

The door slid open. "Get moving, there's a game about to fall!" Akane yelled.

*****

Ranma led RyoGA, Ukyo and Shampoo towards the slowly falling cube. It was headed towards a part of floating point. "Slow game," he commented. "This could be tricky."

"Ranma think game be difficult?" Shampoo inquired from her own zip-board.

"Certainly it'll be complicated. Hope you three can handle it."

The four sprite swooped over the beautiful gardens of Floating Point, past trees and statues till Ranma signalled a halt. The Guardian stared up at the approaching sea of purple energy.

"You ready?" he asked.

"And rarin' to go, sugah." "Of course." "Shampoo ready!"

"I'm ready too."

Chills ran up Ranma's spine as he heard the last voice. It was high pitched, definitely female, and held just a touch of instability to it. He turned, dreading what he was about to find.

Standing there was what had to be a virus. Her bitmap was black, from the tip of her toes to the top of her head, except for the white mask covering her face and the glowing green eyes.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The virus laughed, grabbing Ranma. The Guardian jerked a couple of times and went limp.

"Crazy virus let Ranma go!" Shampoo exclaimed, pulling her bonbori from behind her back.

Kodachi laughed again and raised her hand. "Do you think you can take him from me?" A sizzling ball of energy in the viruses hand. "Do you?!" She threw the ball of energy, which impacted between the three sprites, sending them flying.

Kodachi cackled one last time and vanished in a rain of black rose petals, taking Ranma with her.

Neko-Shampoo got to her paws as Frisket leapt. Both transformed sprites looked around for their comrade. She lay not far away, although at first they didn't realise it.

The small grey rodent that was Ukyo looked at itself. "Squeak!" it cursed as the scenery dissolved into purple swirling energy.

*****

"Odd," Kasumi commented, looking down at the console.

"What's so strange?" Akane asked stepping up behind her.

"I registered a power surge just before the game hit."

Akane frowned. "I hope Shampoo didn't morph, she wouldn't be much use in the game."

*****

Meanwhile in the game, the three animal sprites scanned the landscape around them. The dark sky above was rendered apart by flashes of lightning, illuminating murky shapes. Rising from the ground they could see the forms of gravestones and the jagged shapes of dead trees.

"Mew?" Neko-Shampoo asked.

Ukyo-Mouse shrugged, an almost imperceptible motion. "Squeak."

Frisket rolled his eyes. "Rwoof!"

Neko-Shampoo reached up with a paw and tapped the icon that hung from a collar around her neck. "Me-mew!" A small column of green light struck the cat sprite. When the energy vanished the cute little kitten was gone. In its place stood a black spiky ball of fur sporting massive claws on its underside. Bright yellow eyes with thin black sits glared out at the world.

Frisket stared at Neko-Shampoo for a second before reaching up to tap his own Icon. "Grwol-oof!" For a moment the column of energy surrounded the Junk yard dog, leaving behind a massive grey-black dog. Frisket's mouth now sported a set of massive fangs and his normally expressive eyes had shrunk to small evil red dots.

Ukyo-Mouse squeaked and vanished in the column of energy. After she'd rebooted she stood tall once more at barely over a couple of inches. Her form was wrapped in a cloak of midnight black, with a skeletal rat's nose poking out of the hood. One bone paw was held the shaft of a miniature scythe.

"SQUEAK!" Neko-Shampoo and Frisket both shivered, Ukyo-Mouse voice seemed somehow more real than before, and reminded them of the sound of two tombstones rubbing together.

*****

The User fired off another round from the shotgun into the massive tangle of twisting vines. The plant demon gave a piercing scream and collapsed to the ground, revealing the bridge beyond.

The words "Level Completed" appeared in his view, then "Kills 30/30".

"Groovy!"

Once the words vanished the User, a tall man wearing a black vest and a chainsaw in the place of his right hand, stepped forward and walked with a strange bobbing motion across the bridge. As he passed the halfway point a massive hand reached up from the chasm the bridge spanned. The User stared in horror it fell towards him. Sprinting out from under the falling palm the user dived forward as the bridge was ripped from beneath his feet. His good hand snagged the edge of the chasm, and with an impressive display of strength he pulled himself up onto solid ground.

Turning, the User watched as his shotgun fell into the depths. "Groovy!"

In the distance the screech of a cat rung out, followed by a canine yelp of pain.

*****

Neko-Shampoo glared at Frisket. The mutt was nursing the scratches on his nose that she had put there after he had stepped on her tail. Ukyo-Mouse slapped her forehead with a bone paw.

"SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEEEEAK!" she yelled at the two. Both hung their heads in shamed. "SQUEAK-EK, SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" She strode over to a bush and dragged out a large box with the word shells on it. "SQUEAK."

Both Frisket and Neko-Shampoo nodded their heads. The hound put his nose to the ground and started sniffing around while the hellcat clambered up a tree to scan the area. Seeing both her companions busy, Ukyo-Mouse turned to the box and sliced it in half with her scythe.

"Shenick, shenick," she chuckled.

*****

The last skeleton had a surprised look on its skull as the Chainsaw tore through its ribs. Stepping back the User watched as it collapsed into a pile of bones on the ground, then crumbled into dust. Leaving the dust to the tender mercies of the wind, the User strode on and grabbed the shotgun on the pedestal.

"My BOOMSTICK!" The sprite announced, holding the weapon above his head.

A roar from behind announced the entrance of a new demon and the User spun and fired the shotgun. The poor game sprite took the shot straight in the chest and fell over backwards.

"Groovy!"

*****

Neko-Shampoo snuck along the branch of the tree, keeping a close eye on the User below. He was busy destroying game spirtes, who just kept shuffling stupidly towards him. Neko-Shampoo wondered what kind of basic sprite enjoyed such mayhem and destruction, but was glad this one did.

Reaching the thin part of the branch above the User Neko-Shampoo steadied herself for a moment, then pounced. She fell straight towards the sprite below, landing atop his head. Her claws dig deep into bitmap, rendering it horribly.

Dropping the shotgun for a second the User grabbed at the angry ball of fur on his face. Neko-Shampoo dodged the hand, and leapt away, scampering into the darkness. The User swept up the shotgun, but the arrival of more game sprites kept him from following.

*****

Small crosses and tiny tombstones littered the graveyard. There was a monument to Fluffy, here a memorial to Rex, and finally, atop the altar at the centre was a page of the Manual of Mortality. The User advanced towards his goal, carefully looking to the left and right, his gun following his gaze.

Once he was deep in the cemetery a small figure leapt up on one of the plaques. "SQUEAK, SQEE SQUEAK SQUEAK SQUEAK!" Ukyo-Mouse commanded.

Around the user the dirt started to churn, as the residents of the graves dug there way to the surface. The User failed to notice as the undead corpses hauled themselves to their feet. Little did he realise that a tide of death washed towards him as he continued towards the important piece of paper. Little did he care when the horde of undead gerbils, hamsters and mice were crushed beneath his feet.

Ukyo-Mouse slapped a hand to her face and walked away muttering to herself.

*****

The spawn of Shub-Nigurath struck out with its tentacles.

Frisket, Neko-Shampoo, and Ukyo-Mouse watched as the User side-stepped the attack of the tree-like monster and delivered a blast from his double barrelled shotgun. It roared in pain and lashed out again, catching the User sprite and flinging him across the clearing. Landing on his feet, the User rushed forward, chainsaw roaring.

From their hiding place, the three animal sprites saw the user slice the game sprite in half. A leaf of paper, another of the pages of the Manual of Mortality, fluttered down from the darkness above, and was expertly snatched up by the User.

"Grrrroooowwwwlllll!" Neko-Shampoo hissed.

Ukyo-Mouse nodded. "SQUEAK, SQUEAK SQUEAK!" The other two nodded and the trio scampered, scuttled and loped into the darkness.

*****

Like the crack of doom the shack door slammed open, revealing a large dog with glowing red eyes, a wicked looking furball and a small black robed figure holding a scythe.

Neko-Shampoo moved cautiously in, looking around the room. She sniffed the air, then turned back and nodded to the others. Ukyo-Mouse strode in and looked around. A desk sat in one corner next to a small shelf full of books. The desk held the User's final goal, the cover of the Manual of Mortality. A sofa leaned against one wall and a folded rug lay next to a chained trap door on the floor. Above the piano hung a mounted moose head, gazing blankly across the room, mouth held open.

The small creature gestured towards the piano, then to Frisket. "SQUEAK EEK!"

"Gwoof!" the dog agreed, and loped across to the piano. He pushed his way behind the large instrument, and leaned against it, pushing it easily across the room. The door slammed shut as the piano struck it, pinning it closed.

Meanwhile Neko-Shampoo leapt up to grab the book cover. She looked around the room for somewhere to hide it, immediately discounting the book shelf as being too obvious. Her eyes came to rest on the chained trapdoor. Perfect.

She dragged the cover to the edge of the desk and pushed it off. Moments later she dropped to the ground next to it, and gripped it in her jaws. Once she had it at the trapdoor she dropped it again and looked for a way to open it. Between the wooden door and the floor was a small crack so the small cat tried to push her paw between them to pry it open.

Suddenly the trapdoor banged up, until it ran out of chain. Surprised Neko-Shampoo leapt back, and glared into the darkness in the crack.

"Whadda ya want?" a voice asked in a bad Spanish accent.

"Merrrrrooooowwwww," the small cat gestured towards the book. A hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed the book, then vanished back. Moments later the trapdoor banged closed.

Neko-Shampoo blinked, then rapped on the trapdoor. Once again it banged open. "Whadda ya want?"

"Merow," Neko-Shampoo thanked the creature.

"S'alright." The trapdoor banged closed.

Neko-Shampoo proudly walked off, a job well done, then looked back at the trapdoor in shock. The creature had understood her! Before she could investigate further she was interrupted by a mechanical whine outside.

With a screech the blade of the chainsaw bit through the lighter patch of wallpaper where the piano had sheltered. Neko-Shampoo and Frisket watched helplessly as a man shaped hole was through the wall. The wall fell in with a mighty crash.

"Groovy!" the User exclaimed, stepping through the hole. He looked at the hell-hound and terror-cat standing staring at him and quickly took aim with the shotgun held with his good hand.

"Schnick, schnick, schnick," Ukyo-Mouse snickered from above him and sliced through the nail holding up the Moose head. The head tumbled forward, sending the undead rat sprite flying, and landing on the Users head, as if trying to eat him head first.

"Groovy," came the User's muffled comment as he stumbled forward swinging both gun and chainsaw wildly. Cat, dog and mouse dived for cover, even as the chainsaw sliced into the chain securing the trapdoor. The trio covered their eyes as metal screamed.

Neko-Shampoo mewed and pointed a paw at the trapdoor, Ukyo-Mouse and Frisket nodded even as the User dropped his gun and started struggling with the moose head. Neko-Shampoo and Frisket snuck towards the User, the first going past him and the trapdoor, while the latter crouched behind the User's legs.

The moment the moose head came free, the sprites sprung into action. With a loud hiss Ukyo-Mouse sprang up at the Users face, scythe flashing and Neko-Shampoo tapped on the trapdoor with a paw. The User immediately back pedalled away from the undead rodent, and discovered the large hound lying behind him. Behind him the trapdoor slammed all the way open, the creature demanding "Whadda ya want?" The User hung in mid-air for a moment before tilting over and falling into the darkness below. With a loud bang the Trapdoor swung back into place.

Silence fell, leaving the three sprites wondering what was happening. Neko-Shampoo opened her mouth, but never spoke as the trapdoor crashed open. The User flew out of the darkness, hanging as if a puppet, his skin a pale green.

"I'm dead before dawn, dead before dawn!" he cackled, and dropped back out of sight.

"Game Over," the soft feminine voice of the system announced. In a haze of purple the dark shack vanished, leaving the three sprites standing once more in Mainframe's park.

Almost immediately a fleet of vehicles descended upon them. CPUs and diagnostics hurried up to check for wounded sprites. It was only moments before Akane and Nabiki arrived. Seeing the three animals Akane turned her first officer. "Number one, bring up the static shower."

The numeral one nodded. "Yes ma'am." He turned and hurried off.

Nabiki walked forward and picked up the small mouse. "That has to be you Ukyo. Well I guess this explains a lot." She turned to watch a van pull towards them. A couple of CPU binomes jumped out of the cab and ran around to pull open the side door. Mainframe's Indexer climbed the steps and put the small rodent on the floor before reaching in and turning on the static shower. She closed the door behind her and waited for the hacker to return.

Nanoseconds past before the door swung open and the cute hacker girl sauntered down the steps. "Ah, nothing like a shower to make you feel like yourself again."

"I'm sure," Nabiki commented as Akane put Neko-Shampoo into the shower truck. "Where's Ranma and RyoGA?"

"We were attacked right before the game hit, some crazy black dame. She activated our curses and took off with Ran-chan. RyoGA, well he..."

"... took off after them," Nabiki interjected, glancing at Frisket.

"Ah... yeah," Ukyo agreed, confused.

"So Kodachi has Ranma."

"Shampoo go get him back!" the Amazon announced, bouncing over.

Nabiki shook her head. "No, she's too powerful for a frontal assault. What we need, is a plan!"


	7. v 1,6,2

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.6.2 : The Masks We Wear

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Kodachi:AHAHAHAHA!!!

I come from the net,

following a whim.

I'm a virus, my function:

to randomise and confuse.

Nothing escapes my touch.

*****

Previously on Wild Boot:

Kasumi Tendo, the of Mainframe, and her sister Nabiki decided to test the system sprite Shampoo, the game sprite RyoGA, and Ukyo the hacker by sending them into a game. Mainframe's Guardian, Ranma Saotome, accompanied them, to observe and if necessary, help.

Unfortunately the random virus Kodachi struck before the group could enter the game, capturing Ranma and trapping the others in their corrupted forms. Despite this disadvantage, the three sprites managed to defeat the User and win the game.

Now the defenders of Mainframe must gather to rescue their Guardian from the hands of a virus more powerful than all of them put together.

*****

Mike the TV, Mainframe's most annoying talking appliance, walked slowly and carefully through the streets of Lost Angles. It was a dangerous place to go, but Mike was a sprite with a mission, and nothing, not even the threat of deletion by an insane virus, could make him go back and face an angry Akane Tendo.

Lost Angles was a place as random as its mistress. The buildings were warped and dark. Streets twisted away, looking as if they went one way, but going another.

"Find Kodachi, find Kodachi! How am I supposed do that?!" Mike demanded, exasperated.

"Looking for me?" a voice asked sweetly from behind him.

Mike spun to find the black clad virus leaning over him, her mask innocent. He looked up at her and gulped. "Kodachi, virus of Mainframe, it is my pleasure to issue to you an invitation to the first cyclic Mainframe Martial Algorithmics competition! You'll be competing against Mainframe's other algorithmic greats for the title of Champion of Mainframe!"

Kodachi's masked visage changed to a bright smile. "A competition, oh goody!" she clapped her hands like a child. "I'll come, I'll come."

"Login is at 2700, Kits Sector Gym," Mike informed her.

The virus' mask changed once more, becoming one of worry. "Oh dear, I'd better get ready." She immediately vanished in a shower of black rose petals.

Mike blinked in surprise. "It worked?!"

*****

Ranma groaned and opened his eyes. He hung from the roof of one of the strangest rooms he'd ever seen. The floor was bowl shaped and decorated gothically, while the roof was a flat grey surface. Not far away a throne sat on the ceiling, next to a floating mirror. A small triangle hovered watching him.

"Oh, my head," Ranma groaned.

"You're awake!" The happy voice brought back memories of the black virus that had grabbed him. Sure enough she paced into sight. Like the throne she stood upside-down on the ceiling. No, wait, Ranma was upside-down. "While I would love to spend some time with you, I have a competition to win. Bye-bye."

"Hey, wait!" Ranma yelled as the virus vanished, leaving behind a mess of black rose petals. "Spamit!"

*****

Ukyo looked over the Kits sector gym. A number of binomes were practising Algorithmics exercises, and failing miserably. The hacker turned and paced over to where Nabiki was organising some redecorating.

"Nabiki suga', this bunch ain't gonna keep that virus busy for long."

Mainframe's Indexer turned to her. "Oh, that lot are just here to fill up the numbers. You and Akane are the only real competition she'll find."

"Me honey?! I wanted..."

"To go with Shampoo and RyoGA to rescue Ranma?" Nabiki shook her head. "Sorry, but Shampoo isn't very good at Algorithmics and RyoGA has no skill at all. You on the other hand are just what we need."

Ukyo pouted. "But Shampoo'll get Ran-chan."

She was answered by a chuckle. "Don't worry, I'll make sure Ranma is told the entire plan. After all, my interests are poorly served by a unbalancing in the battle between you."

Ukyo raised her eyebrow. "Really, why would that be suga'?"

"You and Shampoo both came because of Ranma and I wouldn't want you to leave because of a broken heart."

"That's very... charitable of you." Ukyo glared at Nabiki.

With a smirk Nabiki turned back to her work, leaving Ukyo to her own devices. The hacker wandered off and it didn't take her long to find Mainframe's first defender practising with a long ribbon.

"TESTING!" Mike's voice blared over the PA system. "TESTING! ONE! TWO! THREE!"

Akane, distracted by the sudden loud noise, wrapped the ribbon around her ankles, tripped and crashed to the ground. "MIKE!" she yelled rolling over, tearing the ribbon off.

Mike, who was on the stage in front of a microphone stand, jumped, startled, and dashed off. Moments later an enraged Akane stormed after him. Ukyo shook her head. The Defender was too easy to anger, and she could remember when she was like that, a time before she had met Ranma.

The hacker picked up the discarded ribbon. It had been a long time since she had last performed Algorithmics. Oh, she got lots of practise while hacking, but she almost never performed simply for performances sake, not like when she was young, not since the crash.

Ukyo spun the ribbon about her, then arced it over her head. A tune came back to her, a song she'd practised to when she was still oh-one. In time to the music only she could hear, Ukyo started swaying, then her arms and feet in steady motions. The ribbon swept through the air as Ukyo begin her dance. Gracefully she moved, leaping and twisting, twirling and swaying, her ribbon slicing through the air. Her vigorous dance continued, building momentum as did the remembered music. Finally as the music reached climax Ukyo drew back, and then ran forward and leaped into a series of handstands punctuated by midair spins. She landed after the final leap, having crossed the mat, and stood, arms spread above her, head bowed.

Applause exploded around her. In shock Ukyo looked around, all the binomes who had been practising and working in gym were clustered around the arena Ukyo had been dancing in. They were all clapping for all their worth, some whistling and cheering.

Ukyo bowed grandly a number of times before the applause died down. The hacker abandoned the mat, and walked over to Nabiki, who has been watching in undisguised amazement.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

Ukyo shrugged. "I was trainin' to be the Algorithmics champion of ma home system when I was young."

"Well, beautiful as it may be, it won't help you much in this competition."

"What do ya mean?"

Nabiki turned away. "This is a MARTIAL Algorithmics competition. You'll be fighting Kodachi with the tools of Algorithmics."

"FIGHTING?!" Ukyo exclaimed. "I thought you said she was too dangerous to attack!"

"In a straight up fight, yes, but she'll be limited by the rules of the competition. Anyway we don't have to defeat her, just keep her busy."

"Nabs-chan, you are so random."

*****

"Game sprite needs leash," Shampoo muttered, having caught RyoGA about to wander off again. She glanced up at the twisted bridge before them. The entrance to Lost Angles had been badly warped, either by some ancient accident or the twisted city's only resident.

"Now what?" her companion demanded.

"We contact sneaky Indexer and tell her we arrived." She pulled out the thin rectangle and touched a button. In only moments Nabiki appeared on the screen.

"Ah, Shampoo, have you arrived yet?"

"We here, despite almost losing game sprite."

"Good, just in time, we're expecting Kodachi any moment. Just don't forget--" Nabiki glanced to the side. "Oh spam, she's here." The screen went dark.

"What we not supposed to forget?!" Shampoo demanded of the blank screen.

"If she's there, we should move in," RyoGA suggested.

Shampoo nodded. "Let's go!"

*****

Akane, Nabiki and Ukyo watched as the virus stood before the table scribbling with a stylus on her entry form. With a bright smile she handed the doc over to the quivering binome behind the desk.

"T-thank y-you, miss Kodachi. If you'll j-just w-wait, t-the tournament w-will begin in a few h-hundred nanos," the binome stuttered.

"Okay!!" The virus turned and paced towards the three data sprites. "Indexer, Defender, are you competing too?"

Nabiki held up her hand. "Oh, no, I'm simply here to watch over my investment." She gave the virus a smile. "As one of the sponsors, I stand to make a large profit from this tournament. My little sister, however is joining in."

Kodachi's mask changed suddenly to a frown and a frightening glare. "Then she'd best hope not to face me." Before Akane could react the random virus turned to Ukyo, her mask a picture on curiosity. "Have we met before?"

"I don't think so darlin', I sure I'd remember if we had. I've just arrived in Mainframe, name's Ukyo." The hacker lazily offered her hand to the virus.

"And will you be competing?"

Ukyo gave Kodachi a smug smile. "It'll be a pleasure to go up against you."

Kodachi replied with a wicked grin.

"Ladies, gentlenomes!" the Judge yelled, gaining everyone's attention. "Login is now closed. The first round draw is ..." The zero binome paused for a few seconds waving a file folder. Everyone lent forward. "Quik Tsort vs Nap Sack. Kodachi Virus vs X Tinct Mallard. The Masked Penguin vs Akane Tendo. Drew Plex vs Ukyo."

*****

Shampoo scratched her head and glanced around in confusion. "Shampoo lost!" she complained.

RyoGA shrugged. "Don't look at me."

The pair were standing at the intersection of a pair of streets in Lost Angles. Large brightly graffitied buildings rose around them, blocking out any distant landmarks that might have provided a reference point.

"At least no nulls."

RyoGA was looking past Shampoo. "Are nulls colourful little worms?"

"Yes. Why game sprite want know?"

"Dangerous are they?"

"Very, eat all energy."

"Then I suggest we run." RyoGA turned and started sprinting away from the blue skinned sprite.

"What game sprite talk about?" Shampoo asked, turning to look behind her. Surging down the street towards her like a massive tsunami, were more nulls than Shampoo had seen in her entire process. "Aiya!"

RyoGA was surprised when Shampoo pulled up next to him. He was running hard out and not only was she keeping pace with him, but she was catching up. Maybe the strange speaking sprite was worthwhile.

Behind the sprinting pair the wave of nulls rose and swelled gathering above them, until it came to a sudden halt. Shampoo and RyoGA slowed down and stopped.

Shampoo looked over her shoulder at the nulls mulling about at the lip of the pit. "Can game sprite fly?"

RyoGA stared downwards. "Does falling count?"

"No."

"No."

The pair screamed as they fell.

*****

Akane dropped into the seat beside Ukyo. "I can't believe I was beaten by a penguin."

Ukyo watched the final bout of the first round with interest. Kodachi faced off against the zero binome X Tinct Mallard. "He looked like a minimalist," Ukyo commented as Kodachi held up a hoop, her mask a wicked grin.

"Yeah, he barely moved, embarrassing way to be defeated."

"I'll say!" Ukyo grinned at Akane.

Akane glared back. Behind them X Tinct Mallard crashed to the ground.

*****

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" Shampoo and RyoGA exploded out of one of the monster heads adorning the walls of a large gothically decorated chamber. The pair crashed into a pile on the floor.

"Game sprite get off Shampoo!" the cute blue sprite exclaimed.

"Alright, alright. I'm getting." RyoGA started to get off Shampoo, but lost his balance. He threw out his hand to steady himself, and came in contact with something soft and round.

There was a pregnant pause. "Eeeeeeekkkk! Pervert!" TWACK! RyoGA once again took flight.

"Hmph. Pervert game sprite keep hands off Shampoo!"

"You'd better hope Mousse doesn't hear about this," a familiar voice laughed from across the room.

Shampoo spun around to find Ranma hanging upside in midair wrapped in warped threads. Ranma glanced around. "Watch it, Kodachi left her pet Turtle to guard the place."

Shampoo stepped forward confidently. "Shampoo no scared of turtle."

"LOOK OUT!"

Shampoo threw herself to the side, feeling the brush of a near miss. She rolled across the ground and leapt to her feet. Before her, hovering in the air, was a large triangluar sprite. The back of it hinged so that it could snap angrily at her.

"That turtle?"

"Her pet apparently."

Shampoo pulled out her bonbori and faced off against the triangular sprite. Mr Turtle shot forward, a black line trailing behind him. Shampoo flipped out of the way, swinging downwards as she spun, striking it. The sprite leapt forward as her opponent suddenly stopped. As the bonbori arced down Mr Turtle rolled over and bit the weapon.

Shampoo held up the remains. "That Shampoo's favourite," she threw away the shattered shaft, then pulled out a massive curved sword, "now you die!"

Mr Turtle's jaw dropped and his eyes bugged out. He whimpered once as light gleamed off her blade then turned and hurried away, yelping.

"Heh, is Shampoo good or what?"

*****

"In the red corner, wearing basic black and white we have Kooooodaaaaaachi Virus!" the MC announced, gesturing to the virus. "Aaaaaaand in the blue corner, in white, black and with lilac skin we have Uuuuukyyyo." The hacker waved to the applauding audience.

"Ladies, ready your weapons!" Kodachi produced a long ribbon while Ukyo pulled out a collection of clubs. "I'd like to see a good fight, but I'm out of here." The binome dashed away.

Immediately Ukyo reacted, ignoring Mike as he started his motormouth commentating. "Ukyo tosses her clubs, but Kodachi snaps her ribbon to intercept!" The crowd gasped as the projectiles were sliced in two. "A monostring ribbon! Is this cheating?! Lets ask the judges!"

The three binomes sitting jumped as the cameras turned to cluster around them. All three immediately held up cards mark valid.

Meanwhile, Mike continued his ringside blow-by-blow account of the action . "Kodachi performs an amazing leap and attempts to entwine her opponent, but Ukyo somersaults free... and throws her last club, knocking the ribbon from Kodachi's hand.

"Kodachi produces another weapon. Oh no, its her medicine ball, we saw this earlier against X Tinct Mallard," Mike pulled aside, "who the diagnostics say is going to survive."

"Sure enough Kodachi throws the medicine ball, and the explosion is MASSIVE! Is this the end of Ukyo? No wait here she comes, vaulting out of the smoke. She's holding up her hand, wanting a new weapon from her second, the always ang..." Mike spotted Akane glaring at him, "ah, beautiful Akane Tendo. Akane tosses her... a candy stripped HOOP! Let's see what kind of tricks Ukyo has up her sleeves."

Ukyo smiled. "If its tricks you want, its tricks you'll get. Lala loopy teleport!" Ukyo skipped through the ring, vanishing.

Mike's jaw dropped. "Amazing, Ukyo's vanished. Has she run away?! NO, she's just reappeared behind Kodachi and looped her hoop around Kodachi's neck. A yank... and she fails to pull the virus off balance. Kodachi's smiling, this is a bad sign, she reaches up and twists the hoop, throwing Ukyo across the ring.

"Oh, wow, mainframe's local hacker just twisted in mid air and rebounded off the ropes. She's pulled out her spatula and is flying towards her opponent. My code, what a collision, and Ukyo's managed to knock down the virus. No one's managed that before."

"Kodachi's getting up, and she looks angry, but she's weaponless. Oh my that's a long pole, where did she hide that? Is she going to hit Ukyo with it? No, she's hooked one of the bleachers. Good Code!! That's one hell of a finishing move, attacking with an entire stand of the audience, you can be sure Ukyo's not gonna get up from that!"

Thunder echoed through the room as a section of the stands exploded upwards. A haggard, bruised Ukyo stood amongst the debris. "Must give Ran-chan time," she gasped.

"Ukyo's still standing, but she can't survive another attack like that (but then, neither can the audience). Who'll attack next... *crash* apparently its going to be a turtle from the audience."

Mr Turtle made a beeline from the door to his mistress. He snapped at her and she turned to look at the hacker. Rage took over Kodachi's mask, her eyes glowing a evil red. "THIS IS A TRICK!!!!!" She stalked towards Ukyo. "HOW DARE YOU?!"

Akane hoisted herself over the ropes. "UKYO!!!!"

*****

Shampoo's sword shattered as it struck the Ranma's bonds. She held it up and stared at it in dismay. "Tough," she commented.

"I'm kinda glad you failed," Ranma commented.

"Why Ranma say that?"

"'Cause if you'd gone through with that much force, I'd be half the sprite. YOU'D HAVE CUT RIGHT THROUGH ME!"

RyoGA stepped up beside Shampoo and examined the warped threads. "Why don't you just do this?" he stabbed at the mess with a finger. The moment his finger touched the surface the threads exploded outwards, sending him and Shampoo flying away. Ranma, free of her bonds, squawked, flapped her arms, and promptly fell on her head.

"Where stupid game sprite learn that?" Shampoo demanded, getting to her feet and dusting herself off.

"This old man I met, he taught me it on the condition I never told anyone the way to his store."

"Which wasn't much of a problem," Ranma-chan commented, soothing the back of her head. "Come on, let's get out of here before--" Suddenly the lights went out, leaving the trio standing in half darkness. "This is not good."

A flash of light lit up the room, and the three spun to see Kodachi's mask of anger floating in the air. A second flash accompanied the arrival of the virus herself. In one hand she held the unconscious form of Mike the TV and the other gripped the collars of a similarly slumped Akane and Ukyo.

"Where's MY RANMA?!!!" the virus exclaimed.

Ranma-chan looked down at herself, realising for the first time that RyoGA's explosion had activated her corruption. "This is bad, this is very bad."

"HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY RANMA?!!!!" Kodachi struck out at Shampoo and Ranma-chan with streams of viral energy. The pair arced through the air, Shampoo's body twisting and morphing into a small kitten.

"DIE!!!" RyoGA cried, diving forward, arm extended.

"NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!" Ranma-chan screamed as the game sprite's finger struck the edge of Kodachi's mask. There was no explosion, instead the white mask slid off her face. The clock speed seemed to grind to a halt as it fell through the air, spinning end over end. It struck the ground, bounced once, then again.

Kodachi let loose an inhuman scream of pain as white light flowed from the hole where her face should have been. RyoGA and Ranma-chan dived to the ground as the virus writhed in pain.

"You IDIOT!" Ranma-chan yelled. "She has transfinite power parameters and that mask was the only thing keeping her in check! Now she's going to explode!!"

"How was I supposed to know?!"

"Attend the crashing briefings!"

"So stick it back on!!"

Ranma-chan glared at the game sprite, then looked around. Finding the mask she held out her arm. "GLITCH! CUT'N'PASTE!"

The small keytool flew from Ranma-chan's arm and affixed itself to Kodachi's mask, then carried the object up to screaming virus and jammed the white face covering into place. Darkness and silence fell.

*****

Akane struggled back to consciousness. "Kodachi..." she murmured. "No..."

"It's okay Akane," the kind voice of doctor Tofu assured her. "Kodachi's been taken care of."

Akane opened her eyes to find herself staring up at the roof of the diagnosis bay. "Wha... what happened?"

"Ranma, RyoGA and Shampoo returned with you and Ukyo. She's okay by the way, but still sleeping off her injuries. According to Ranma, Kodachi suffered some kind of terrible wound, but he left her in good hands..."

*****

Kodachi sat curled up in her throne, the only light in her lair the flickering of Mike's screen.

"... only ninety nine ninety nine ninety nine, but wait, don't send any money know. No, if you..."

In the darkness Mr Turtle hovered, watching his mistress.

"... these beautiful steak knives!"

Quietly at first, but gaining in volume, Mainframe's most powerful virus started to chuckle evilly.

*****

The large golden doors swung open, revealing the shadowy hall beyond. Nervously the armoured sprite advanced towards the dais at the far end. Darkness sat where the throne should have stood. Reaching the foot of the stairs the armour sprite knelt and bowed deeply before reaching up to reveal his blue face.

"Mistress, he has returned to the supercomputer."

Within the darkness a small figure moved. "And the other with him?" An old female voice inquired.

The armour sprite shook his head. "Was neither of the youths. He was an older sprite and used to be the of a system by the name of Mainframe."

"Then that is where he left him."

"Do you wish us to retrieve the boy or the girl?"

"No, I will take care of Ranma Saotome!" The figure in the darkness laughed, a chilling sound that sent chills down her servants back.


	8. v 1,7

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.7 : Infected!

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Kuno: I came from the net,

through systems, peoples and cities,

to this place. Mainframe.

My format: Virus, to possess and conquer.

I searched for the perfect system,

a system with the perfect sprite.

Here I found it.

*****

Ranma angled his zip-board down towards the oriental pagoda that was the Nekohanten. As he approached he spotted Nabiki and Shampoo standing outside. Mainframe's Indexer was directing a group of binomes who were shifting large boxes around the restaurants parking lot. The Nekohanten's manager stood watching the group with deliberate hostility.

Ranma swooped down next to Shampoo, startling the cute sprite.

"Ranma!" Shampoo cried happily and glomped onto him. Moments later the Guardian was smashed to the ground by a large mallet.

From the ground, her arms still wrapped around the stunned Ranma, Shampoo glared at his attacker. "Why mercenary Indexer sprite hit Guardian?"

Nabiki shrugged. "Akane wasn't here so someone had to do it."

"Geeze, thank Nabs," Ranma returned sourly, dragging himself back to his feet. "How's things?"

"Everything's running on schedule, but I haven't heard from either RyoGA nor Ukyo."

"Ucchan said she had some business outside Mainframe, something important that needed to be done now." Ranma glanced down at the cute sprite still attached to him. "Shampoo, could you let go of me?"

"Won't she have a problem with the game code alias on her Icon?"

Ranma shook his head. "She said she can just restore it when she returns."

"Oh, good. Any idea about RyoGA?"

"He's lost again. I looked for him, but he could be anywhere and the upgrade is scheduled soon."

At that moment, in Kodachi's lair, Mike the TV and Mr Turtle stopped caring for the virus for a moment and watched as a determined RyoGA charged through the room. They glanced at each other, Mike shrugged, and went back to playing commercials.

Nabiki nodded. "Okay, you'd better get over to the Principal Office, Akane and Kasumi will be waiting for you."

"Right." He looked down at Shampoo. "Could you please let go of me!"

"Shampoo no want to."

Ranma rolled his eyes. "Glitch, crowbar." The keytool shifted its form until it looked like a long bar with a hook.

Shampoo sighed and released him. "You come see Shampoo after upgrade."

"Ah... I better be going, see ya!" Ranma leapt back onto his zip-board and shot into the sky.

"Smooth Ranma, very smooth," Nabiki commented sarcastically.

*****

The sub-sphere floated above Principal Office, blocking the top of the Core. Kasumi and Akane stood on a hexagonal platform inlaid in the top of the white globe. Mainframe's stood patiently waiting while her youngest sister paced.

Akane stopped and turned to her sister. "Where is Ranma?!" she demanded, throwing up her hands.

Kasumi smiled sweetly at her and watched as Ranma popped up behind Akane.

"Talking about me?" Ranma inquired, causing Akane to jump.

Akane spun and slammed her fist into his face. The Guardian somersaulted backwards from the force of the blow, but landed on his feet.

"Ow. Akane why'd you do that?"

"You JERK! Don't sneak up me!!"

"Well--"

Ranma was interrupted by a pleasant sounding klaxon "Warning: Incoming File!" the soft female voice announced from above. The three sprites, and many others system wide, looked up to watch as the blue of the sky shifted to a rich gold colour. Directly above the platform a whirlwind developed, revealing a large hole in the dome above.

"That's strange, its ahead of schedule," Kasumi murmured.

"Warning: Incoming File!" A column of golden energy fell down to land with a crash between Kasumi, Ranma and Akane. The column coalesced into a single large barrel, the metal lid bolted on by large metal rod attached to the base. Above them the sky returned to its normal serene blue.

"That's it?" Ranma asked, looking at the file container in surprise.

"What did you expect?!" Akane snapped.

"This isn't the supercomputer, Ranma. The User sends what he can to help us when he can."

Ranma shrugged. "Whatever. Let's get it inside before sword boy shows up to hijack it."

Kasumi gave Ranma a smile. "Of course." She looked up into the sky. "Pinnacle Descent please."

The sub-sphere shuddered once before descending into the main section of the principal office. Lights flashed past as the sphere moved down the tunnel towards Mainframe's core.

Deep beneath the city the tunnel finally ended, admitting the trio and their strange vehicle into a large domed room. The only sources of light were the glowing green energy conduits that led from the core below up to the city.

Beneath the sphere the massive leaves of the final lock yawned open, admitting them into the very core of Mainframe's processes. The sub-sphere jerked once as it came to a halt.

Ranma look at the room around then. The lock above had once again sealed, leaving the sphere trapped again. The hexagonal platform had fitted into a series of gates, one on each edge, and through the gates, across empty air, Ranma could see doors leading out into the bowels of the Principal office. A strange green light shone up below and Ranma knew without looking that beneath them lay a deadly web of energy beams connected to the core.

Akane pulled out her PDA and pressed a file. Almost immediately the screen blinked and Nabiki appeared. "Is everything ready for shut down?"

Nabiki nodded. "Populace is secured and I have units watching the Tor and G-Prime."

"Okay, we'll power down the system then. See you in a few nano."

"See ya then." Nabiki cut the connection.

"Nabiki's ready," Akane reported to her sister.

With a smile Kasumi acknowledged her, then look up at the roof again. "Activate Principal Office outer defences please." She was acknowledged by a beep. "System shutdown please."

*****

"Warning: System shutdown." The computer voice announced. Nabiki, Shampoo and Mousse looked outside as the sky darkened. The vehicles floating in the parking lot outside slowly lowered themselves to the ground. In the distance the lights of buildings could be seen winking off. The power loss rushed through the system, leaving the sprites standing in gloom.

Nabiki looked at the Mousse and Shampoo. "So, what do you two hope to get with the upgrade."

With a wave of his hands Mousse indicated the space beneath his box. "What else? A new pair of legs. It'd be nice to be mobile again."

"Shampoo want new parser, so she talk right."

Nabiki gave them a light smile. "I should have guessed."

*****

"Hey, this is stuck!" Akane complained. Ranma and Kasumi turned to find her trying to pull the lid off the file container.

"Here, let me," Ranma walked over. Akane rolled her eyes and took a step back. "Glitch crowbar." The keytool reshaped itself and Ranma inserted it under the lid, straining to pry it up. "Hey this is tough."

"Weakling," snapped Akane.

Unnoticed Kasumi reached down and hit the release catch. Unfortunately this sent the lid flying and Ranma sprawling. Moments later the lid crashed down on the Guardian.

Before either Akane or Kasumi could react to help Ranma, a large dark blue figure rose from out of the container. He grinned maniacally and then threw back his head to laugh.

"KUNO!!" Akane cried in shock.

Continuing to smile the Virus turned to look at the two Tendo sisters. "Ah, my dear Defender, I'm so pleased you're here, and of course the ." He nodded to both.

The lid of the file container crashed into Kuno's back, causing the virus the stumble forward. "Don't forget about me!" Ranma cried.

Turning, Kuno faced Ranma. "Ah, Guardian, I was hoping you'd be outside, but then I guess I wouldn't have the pleasure of killing you myself!" Kuno leapt from the container at his foe, swinging his glowing sword.

Ranma jumped over the thrust, legs bent, then pulled himself over the virus. "Glitch, cricket bat." With all his strength the Guardian swung the morphed keytool into the back of Kuno's head. The clang echoed off the walls as the virus stumbled forward.

Hissing, Kuno spun around his sword arcing towards Ranma's head. Ranma dropped under the swing, "Glitch, bar!" and threw himself between Kuno's legs, holding the bar. The keytool snagged the virus' legs, jerking him off his feet, sending him crashing to the ground.

Ranma rolled and flew to his feet in a fluid movement, he spun to face Kuno, only to see Akane jump in from the side. "Akane! No!"

Sneering, the virus picked up the Defender and threw her at her sister. The pair crashed to the ground not far away.

"That wasn't a nice thing to do, not to someone you love," Ranma pointed out.

"She is tough and understands the value of strength." Kuno swiped his sword through the air. "Prepare to quit file!" Kuno charged.

Ranma held up his arm. "Glitch..." his mind went blank," anything!" The keytool leapt off his forearm and flew through the air between him and the virus. Part way there it morphed into a large hanging stop sign. As Kuno approached the sign started swinging and ringing, and as he ran beneath it, he was struck on the head. Ranma shrugged. "As easy as falling off an analogue."

Kuno reeled from the attack as Glitch returned to Ranma. "Think that will stop me?!" Once again the virus started his charge, this time reaching the Guardian and lashing out at him. Moments too late Ranma dodged and he caught the flat of the blade. The force of the blow sent Ranma flying over the edge of the platform.

"Glitch, LINE!" Ranma cried as he fell toward the lethal energy. The Keytool immediately shot out a line and Ranma swing to the safety of the wall.

Meanwhile, back on the platform, Kasumi pulled out her broom and held it before her like a sword as Kuno stalked towards her.

"Please my dear, do not be a fool. You are no fighter." Kuno grabbed the broom and sent a charge through it causing Kasumi to convulse and collapse to the ground.

"KASUMI!!" Akane yelled, dashing forward to punch the virus.

"Ah, your blows are like love-taps." He back-handed her, sending her flying across the platform to lad before one of the gates.

"Be nice to the lady!" Ranma cried, having once more returned to the platform. "Glitch, energy bola!" Glitch, on his forearm, beeped sadly. Glancing at the keytool Ranma noticed it display an empty power bar. "Oh spam!"

Lying on the ground Kasumi stirred. "Activate transport gate please," she muttered. The gate behind Akane crackled into life.

"Thanks Kasumi!" Ranma yelled, and charged past Kuno to tackle Akane into the gate. The energy of the gate carried them across the space to the door. "We'll be back!" The pair disappeared through the door.

Kuno strode over to the prone sprite. "Ah, , such a brave act, helping your friends escape." He reached down and picked her up by the head. "But ultimately, futile. Now, give me the codes."

"Never!" Kasumi replied weakly.

"As you wish." His hand glowed and a flash of light travelled along his arm. Kasumi crashed to ground, not moving, as Kuno turned away from her. "First to deal with the problems inside the Principal Office. Activate Principal Office internal defences, capture mode." Nothing happened. Kuno sighed and glanced down at the . "Please."

*****

Deep in the maze of corridors beneath the Principal office a door slide open. A bunch of robots, all wielding brooms, mops and other household tools, trundled out of a small room. As they travelled they sang "Hi ho, hi ho, it off to work we go..."

*****

In another part of the maze Ranma stopped for a moment to rest. He placed Akane on the floor, then glanced at Glitch.

Akane punched him. "Why did you abandon Kasumi jerk?!"

Angrily Ranma spun to face her. "Because we need to regroup! You and I can't defeat Kuno in a straight out fight, we need a plan and I need to recharge Glitch!"

"Who says we can't beat Kuno?!"

"Look you low-res Guardian-wannabe--" Whatever pearl of wisdom Ranma had to offer was cut off by voices in the distance singing.

"What the hell?"

"Kuno's activated the internal defences!!"

"And they're singing 'Hi ho, hi ho, its off to work we go?'" Ranma asked incredulously.

Akane shrugged. "Talk to Kasumi."

The two sprites turned and ran in different directions down the corridor. Moments later they returned.

"There's a bunch down that way!" declared Ranma.

"Same."

"If those things catch us we're as good as dead."

"Worse," Akane added, glancing about worried.

Ranma looked down at Glitch sitting on his wrist. "Waitaminute, does your PDA have a jumper cable?"

"Yes, but if I lose power I'll lose all my cooking recipes!"

Ranma looked at the rapidly approaching robots. "Would you rather be Kuno's bride?"

Like a flash Akane had her PDA out and was offering the unattached end of the jumper cable to Ranma. He blinked a few times then grabbed the lead, attaching it to the keytool.

The robots got closer and closer, singing badly the whole time, as Ranma watched the powerbar on the PDA. Closer and closer they came. Closer. Closer.

"GLITCH, DOUBLE HEADER!" Ranma yelled. Fields of energy surrounded the two sprites and they shot into the distance.

*****

"Citizens of Mainframe!" Kuno's voice boomed across he city. Large windows appeared above the Principal office, showing the virus' face. "Prepare to face the dawning of a new day. I will remake our system into a fitting tribute to my beloveds." The windows blinked closed.

Nabiki shared a glance with Shampoo. "That's a disgusting image."

"Shampoo wonder what virus talking about?"

Nabiki's eyes went wide. "He's in the core with Akane, Kasumi and Ranma! He can reformat the entire system!!"

"That bad, very bad!"

*****

Within the Principal Office of Mainframe Kuno looked at the array of windows before him. They showed the sectors of Mainframe as well as some of the important buildings, like the Nekohanten, where the Indexer was.

"System command, full deletion!" Kuno waited. Nothing happened. He looked over at the . "I hate you." he told the unconscious lady. "System command, full deletion, please!"

In the windows around him buildings started shaking as the sky darkened still.

"Excellent."

Almost immediately a window popped open. Nabiki glared out, the room behind her quivering. "Kuno, what in the code do you think you're doing?! If you delete the system Akane and your pig-tailed goddess will quit file!!"

"Do not try to trick me Indexer, Akane is safe here in the Principal office and the pig-tailed girl is not in Mainframe. I have researched this plan."

"YOU CORRUPTED RANDOM VIRUS!! I HOPE YOUR SUB-PROCEDURES THROW EXCEPTIONS!!"

Kuno closed the window on the raging sprite. "Ah, not long now and they will be mine!" He smiled wistfully

*****

Nabiki spun to face Mousse. "Get you're processes working on energy shakes! We need to keep everyone's energy up until Ranma and Akane can stop him!"

Mousse saluted. "Yes Ma'am!"

Looking out the window Nabiki watched as the skyscrapers of Mainframe shook. "If they're able to..."

*****

Akane grumbled as she walked along the corridor. "Trust Ranma to send us flying like that."

She walked past a door marked "Mecha Workshop."

"'We need a plan,' I show you a plan Ranma, just as soon as I--" Akane stopped suddenly, then turned around. Quickly she ran back down the hall to the door she had just passed. "Mecha Workshop? Kasumi, what have you been doing?"

She pressed against the door, and it swung open, revealing a dark room beyond. Reaching out she fumbled for the light switch for a few moments before flicking it. Instead of the room fulling with light, a single spotlight came on, illuminating a large red machine in the centre of the room.

It look like a red bug of some description, with four thick legs holding it up. A pair of manipulator arms hung limply from the front beneath a complex optics system. The body of the mecha was segmented into two large ovaloids, the forward dome having the seams of what looked like the cockpit.

Akane walked around the machine, examining it. "What are you?"

The mecha suddenly came alive and stretched out a manipulator. Akane could see a the barrel of gun recessed into the metal palm. "Hi," it squeaked in a voice that reminded her of Shampoo, "I'm Fuchikoma!"

"Er, Hi. Where did you come from?"

The mecha paused. "Ghost in the Shell?" it hazarded.

Akane stared at it in confusion, then it clicked. They'd played a game by that name a few micros before, but had never seen the User, the game sprites had gotten him first. Obviously Kasumi had grabbed the Fuchikoma from that. "I don't suppose you're armed."

"Yes ma'am! I have two automatic cannons set into each manipulator arm, a missile launcher in my rear section, and a grenade launcher fitted beneath the optics system."

Akane smiled. "Okay Fuchikoma, pop the hatch. We're going to do some anti-viral action."

"YES MA'AM!" The mecha cried happily.

*****

The door to the readme room was open. Thankfully the intruder into Mainframes store of knowledge was Ranma. He lent over the table like window, looking at the displays.

"Access Principal Office Map," he ordered. "Locate nearest recharge point."

The window beeped, and a second window open to the right. A strange bell shaped object emerged from the fuzz to stop before Ranma.

"Excellent." He unclipped Glitch from his forearm and held the keytool in the charger. A field enveloped it, letting Ranma remove his hand.

Suddenly Ranma felt a presence behind him. He spun, landing ready to fight, and found a ghostly figure floating before him.

"Bob! Bob! Use Megabyte's greed against him!" the translucent figure told him in a wise old voice. It looked like some kind of wheeled robot with a long pole for a neck and a flat head.

"Who are you old sprite?" Ranma demanded. "And who's this Bob?"

The ghost raised its thin fingers to adjust a pair of glasses on its nose. "Oh, sorry, wrong sprite!" The ghost vanished.

Ranma blinked. "What is it with this system? Game sprites escaping from games, perverted software pirate, glomping sprites, violent guardian-wannabes, love obsessed viruses and wrong numbers from ghosts..." Ranma's lit up and he gave a wicked grin. "Love obsessed."

*****

Shampoo wearily trudged over to the booth and dropped the quantum shake before the binome. He looked up gratefully and took the drink. Like everyone in the restaurant the colours in his bitmap was fading, making it possible to see the seat through him.

Trying to ignore the scene the cute sprite turned and stumbled over to Nabiki's booth. Unlike the binomes, the Indexer's bitmap loss was uneven, leaving some portions of her form only sightly faded while others had almost disappeared. It was a disgusting sight and Shampoo knew she didn't look any better. Nabiki was slumped on the table, looking her PDA and slowly touching controls.

She placed a shakes before the Indexer, then fell into the seat opposite her. "Here is... last of... supplies." Speaking was difficult, and other than a few moans and groans, her's was the only voice in the room.

Nabiki reached out and took a sip. "Thanks."

Shampoo looked at the dark city outside. "At least... Ranma... escape..." she sighed.

"Into... Kuno's... system..." Nabiki pointed out.

"Yeah..."

Nabiki sipped her drink again as Mousse chugged past. "Not... much... longer..."

"Ranma..?"

"He's... trying..." Nabiki gasped. "Just... have to... hold... out..."

"Ranma... hurry... please..." Shampoo murmured, then fell into silence.

*****

Kuno chuckled as he watched the scene in the Nekohanten. Nabiki and her planning had often been a thorn in his side, and now she was simply fading, hoping to be saved by their cowardly Guardian. If only they knew.

"KUNO!!!" The virus turned to find the source of the voice. Sitting on the wall of the chamber was a large red bug, yet it sounded like Akane.

Fuchikoma pointed its manipulators at the virus and spat out a hail of bullets. The bullets struck the virus, leaving him unaffected.

"Missiles!!" Akane yelled. Her mecha hummed for a few seconds, then released a volley of six missiles at the virus. Kuno threw himself to the side, but the missile tracked him and exploded as they impacted. Mainframe's Defender reflexively closed her eyes as the virus was consumed by the glow of her explosion.

Almost immediately she reopened them, just in time to see the glow vanish. Kuno glanced down at himself in confusion. "And that was supposed to do what?"

Akane stared at the virus in shock. "What in the code is the matter with these weapons?"

"They're in test mode. Miss Kasumi was working on them!" The Fuchikoma reported.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?"

"You didn't ask."

"GRRR. Right, we take him on hand to hand." Akane started fiddling with the controls. Kuno watched with interest as the Fuchikoma scuttled across the roof, then dropped down onto the platform.

"Geronimo!!" the small mecha cried as it charged forward. Kuno sneered and stepped to one side, sweeping his sword at the mecha as it flew past. His sword bit into the mecha's rear, lifting the mecha up and sending it spinning and bouncing away. With a crash the Fuchikoma came to a halt, lying on its back. "Danger! Danger, Akane Tendo! Danger!" it cried, arms failing for a few nanoseconds before slumping to the ground.

Inside the mecha Akane tried to pop the hatch, but discovered it trapped shut by the machine's weight. She watched, helpless as Kuno strode towards her.

"Ah, my dear--what the?"

The entire platform started shaking and a large chamber started rose from a section of the floor. The chamber was constructed from twelve pentagons, and all but one of then were opaque. Both Akane and Kuno could see inside Ranma-chan stood. She brightened when she spotted the virus outside and waved hello.

"Ah, my pig-tailed goddes, at last you have come to your senses." Kuno strode up to the chamber and yanked open the see through door. He climbed the steps up to the platform on which Ranma-chan stood, but instead of leaping into his waiting arms, Ranma-chan dove past him and somersaulted out the door.

"Glitch, seal and activate chamber!" The keytool flew from his wrist and slammed shut the door, trapping the virus inside. Moments later beams of light shot from the centres of the pentagons to envelope Kuno.

Ranma-chan got to her feet and ran over to the still prone form of the . "Kasumi, wake up!"

"Wha..?" She stirred and looked up at the Guardian. "Oh, Ranma, is something wrong?"

"Kuno's started a system wide delete command. You've got to undo it!"

Kasumi nodded and used Ranma-chan as a crutch to get to her feet. "Oh my. Okay, you help Akane, and I'll do it."

Nodding Ranma-chan walked over to the small mecha. With all her strength she managed to lift the Fuchikoma just enough for Akane to slid out the hatch.

Mainframe's defender got to her feet and looked at the chamber holding Kuno. "What is that?"

"It's the chamber the Principal office uses to break down viruses."

Inside the chamber Kuno sneered. "I will not let that coward Ranma have you!!" He reached over, obviously in pain, and touched a small button on his arm.

Ranma's eyes flew wide as the virus started beeping and glowing. "He's activated a self-destruct mechanism!! Glitch, return!" The keytool shot back to Ranma's arm and the Guardian lifted the disc to reveal a small control panel. As Kuno's beeping increased in pitch and speed he typed in a command and the chamber and virus exploded out of the Principal Office.

Outside the chamber flew through a now brightening sky, and crashed into the Silicon Tor.

*****

Ranma, the three Tendo sisters and the Nekohanten staff sat around a booth at the restaurant. The room was once more full of the sound of dinner conversation and the clinking of cutlery on plates.

"Ranma like leaving things to last moment," Shampoo commented.

The Guardian shrugged. "Builds up the dramatic tension. Akane, where did you find that mecha?"

Kasumi smiled. "I took it from a game."

"How is it?" Akane asked, worried.

"I'm sure I'll be able to get it processing again."

"This time, give it working weapons!" Nabiki commented.

"And a better personality," Akane added.

The door to the restaurant crashed open, causing Mousse to groan. "RANMA!!! HOW DARE YOU ABANDON ME!!!" screamed RyoGA.

The Guardian sighed. "Here we go again."


	9. v 1,8,1

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.8.1: Nullzilla

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Kasumi: I care for Mainframe

Its people, places and resources.

My format:

To direct and guide,

With the aid of my family and friends.

*****

The one binome wearing the lab coat turned away from the complicated machinery. "Igor, throw the switch!"

"Yeth mathter." Igor, a misshapen zero binome picked up a small hemispherical dome with a lever poking out of it and tossed it across room.

The doctor caught the switch. "Thank you Igor." He reached for the lever and, with a dramatic pause, pulled it. The great machines surrounding them crackled to life and electricity arced across the room to strike a figure lying beneath a sheet on the table.

Slowly the figure stirred and rose off the table. "It compiles! It compiles!" The figure collapsed back onto the table. "It doesn't do anything, but it COMPILES!!"

"Frankennome's Monster, tonight on MMN, the Monster Movie Network." Mike announced, the scene vanishing from his screen.

Kodachi cackled and clapped her hands, then turned at look at the ornately framed mirror floating beside her. The mirror did not reflect the virus and the gloomy lair behind her, but instead showed an image of a wondrous system, larger than Mainframe. "Ah, the Supercomputer, where my Ranma comes from." Kodachi sighed.

Mr Turtle snapped at Mike the TV, who nodded in answer. "He's right, best to take your mind off Ranma for the moment." His screen fuzzed for a moment. "Showing for the twenty seventh time by popular demand, 'The Ride of the Valkyries'!"

On Mike's screen the image of a stage appeared and a large female one binome walked out. She was wearing armour, a winged helmet and a cape. Her voice started singing a nonsensical series of syllables, hitting higher and higher notes until she hit a crescendo.

Kodachi slapped her hands across her ears while Mr Turtle did his best impression of a dead fish. Unnoticed by all the mirror shook for a few seconds before shattering.

"My mirror! Look what you've done?!" snapped Kodachi leaning forward to tower over Mike.

Mike looked, and didn't understand what he saw. Through the broken mirror he could see not the lair, but a strange swirling fractal pattern. From out of the colours a black shape swam, its long tentacles reaching out through the mirror frame to wrap around the virus.

Kodachi screamed once as she wrestled with the invader and her two caregivers watched in horror as the thing's tentacles pried at the virus' mask. Bright light filled the room as it came free, then vanished suddenly as the mask reattached itself. A groan issued from the prone form lying on the floor, but of the invader there was no sign. For all of two nanos.

Kodachi's second screech rent the air. Her smooth skin bubbled and twisted, forming ridges covering her body. Energy crackled along her finger nails as they extended, changing from black to a blood red. Standing the cirus stood and looked around, her face a picture of demonic rapture.

Mike and Mr Turtle backed away as the infected virus approached them. Kodachi leaned forward and hissed at the two, her clawed hands reaching back, ready to strike.

Suddenly the virus was tackled to the ground by a wave of nulls. The two sprites glanced at each, surprised by the turn of events, then turned to see more and more nulls flooding into the room to attack the infected virus.

*****

Sasuke turned to the vid-window. "Phase one complete boss!" he reported to Kuno.

"Good, proceed to phase two," Kuno returned, and closed off the vid-window.

Sasuke turned to Gosunkugi. "Begin phase two!"

The larger robot nodded. "Right phase two." He turned away, paused, then turned back. "Ah... which one was phase two?"

Sasuke sighed. "Read nibbles the book."

"Oh, right." Gosunkugi wheeled over to the crib holding a small blue null. Pulling out a thin book he opened it and started reading. "The Null prince. Once upon a time there was a null prince..."

The null lay calmly while the robot read, lulled by his voice. Suddenly it sat upright and squealed. It hurried over to one of the crib's bars, ate through and zipped off into the distance.

Gosunkugi watched as the pet left. "Ah, Sasuke, what phase is taking Nibbles for a walk?"

Sasuke tapped his collar for a moment. "There is no phase for taking Nibbles for a walk, she's run away."

There was a pause. "RUN AWAY?!" chorused the pair.

*****

"AHAHAHAHAHA!!!" cackled the as squeals filled the room.

Ranma glanced over at Akane. "Your sister sure enjoys her work."

The lab held the three sprites and RyoGA comfortably, and while Ranma and Akane were watching the experiment with interest, the game sprite was looking slightly ill.

"What are you doing to those poor things?" he asked, pointing to the nulls Kasumi was electrocuting.

Ranma turned to RyoGA while Kasumi shut off the machine. "Okay, when the User wins a game the sprites inside get nullified, right?"

"Except the game sprites," RyoGA pointed out.

Ranma acknowledged the point with a nod. "Right, which is part of our theory. If a game sprite's data is saved, then maybe so is a system sprite's. If we can somehow recreate that data or get the null back into the game that created it then we can restore a nullified sprite."

"Has that ever happened?"

"No," Kasumi answer. "Nulls avoid games, so none have been restored. Its a pity, we lost many games before Akane grew up and Ranma arrived."

"And lost many friends," Akane added sadly. She sniffed, then slammed her fist into the wall. "Damn mother!" she spat.

Kasumi crossed the room. "It wasn't her fault Akane, the experiment just got out of hand."

"The sister city was nullified along with the everyone in it and you call it 'out of hand'?" Akane demanded.

RyoGA glanced questioningly over at Ranma, who could only shrug in answer. Before the scene could be played out the screaming of nulls interrupted them. Everyone snapped around to look at the cage containing the energy sucking creatures. All the machinery was deactivated, yet the nulls were excitedly bouncing themselves off the walls.

"What's up with them?" Akane asked.

"Glitch, scanner!" Ranma ordered. The keytool's disc increased in size slightly and then started displaying a series of power bars. "Hmm, there's some kind of signal. Looks like it coming from Lost Angles."

"Lost Angles?! Come on Ranma, we'd better investigate." Akane headed out the door, the Guardian not far behind.

RyoGA leapt to his feet to follow them, but was restrained by Kasumi. "Let them deal with it. You're still new to the system and have to learn our ways."

*****

As Mike and Mr Turtle dashed across the bridge leaving Lost Angles they saw two pairs of sprites heading towards them from different directions. The pair slowed as Akane and Ranma swooped down and the two bots rocketed over to land with a roar.

"Have you seen her?" Sasuke implored the other four.

"Who?" Mike, Akane and Ranma chorused.

"Nibbles!" Sasuke and Gosunkugi replied.

Akane giggled. "You lost Kuno's pet null?!"

"Oh boy, are you two in trouble," Ranma added.

"Ah, excuse me," Mike interrupted, "but we have bigger problems."

"What?!" the other four demanded.

"Sasuke, Gosunkugi," he started grandly, "you came looking for one single null, well how about four million! May I present, Nullzilla." He stepped aside and gestured behind him.

The four sprites stared in shock as a massive form, taller than the arcs of the bridge across to Lost Angles stomped towards them. Even from this distance its could be seen that its "skin" was a multicoloured mass of seething nulls.

"Let's get out of here!" Ranma exclaimed.

"I second the motion!" Mike announced.

*****

The defenders of Mainframe clustered around the table like window. RyoGA and Kasumi had met Ranma, Akane and Mike as they entered the Principal Office, while Shampoo and Nabiki had arrived not long after. They all stared down at the images on the window.

The major display showed Nullzilla stumbling through Mainframe's streets, smashing into buildings. Next to that sat a wireframe diagram of the monster. Deep inside was the figure of Kodachi, twisting and turning.

"Why nulls attack crazy virus? Shampoo thought virus control nulls?"

Kasumi looked up. "If what Mike says is true then it is possible that the nulls are not attacking Kodachi, but protecting Mainframe from her. Whatever came out of her mirror--"

"--and it wasn't Alice!" Mike interjected.

"Whatever it is, obviously is so dangerous that the nulls are willing to drain their mistress to stop it."

Ranma frowned. "Unfortunately Kodachi's attempts to escape are causing the mass to lash out wildly."

"So it comes down to a question of which goes first," Nabiki pointed out, "Kodachi's trans-finite powers or Mainframe."

Everyone around the window fell silent, staring at the monster as it knocked down another building.

"I have something for just such a situation," announced Kasumi.

"You are prepared for a giant monster made entirely of nulls stomping around Mainframe?" Ranma asked after everyone had picked themselves up off the ground.

"That is correct," Kasumi nodded.

"How... Never mind. I'm not going to ask, I wouldn't like the answer. Let's go."

With a bright smile Mainframe's turned and led them to a wall. She glanced round then threw out her arms. "Open sesame please." The wall separated, revealing darkness beyond. Kasumi strode purposefully into the darkness, shortly followed by the others.

*****

The walls were panelled in an expensive oaken texturemap. Along one wall was a series of portraits of Ranma, Akane, Shampoo, Nabiki all smiling happily and Mike, who was sticking his tongue out at the camera. A large desk sat back to one wall opposite a couch and chair with a Icon mat sitting between them.

Kasumi and RyoGA walked around behind the desk, the former taking a seat. The pair looked across at the others. Each had changed into a tight fitting outfit. Ranma's was a nice navy blue and white with a helmet shaped like a yawning ape head. Next to him Akane wore a beautiful gold and brown, and her helmet had a reptilian look to it. Shampoo, bouncing happily on her heels, was clothed in a yellow outfit with brown spots, and her helmet looked a little too much like a cat for Ranma. Looking very bird-like, Nabiki's uniform was light grey and brown, and finally Mike wore little more than a dirty grey helmet with a long rodent nose between his antenna.

"Mmphf hmf mumf!" Ranma mumbled, then reached up and tore away the face plate from his mask. "You can't talk in these things!"

"Are you prepared?"

"Ready!" the five sprite chorused.

"Hey, what about me?" RyoGA complained.

Ranma smirked. "You get to sit on sidelines and make snide comments when we get into trouble while not actually getting into the fight."

"Why you..!" growled the game sprite.

Kasumi cleared her throat. "Please, we don't have time for this. Can everyone get to their places, please?"

Ranma and Akane headed for different parts of the wall while Shampoo and Nabiki took a seat on the couch. Mike just stood on the mat looking confused.

"Defenders are go!" Kasumi cried, stabbing a button.

If you had blinked, you'd have missed it. The section of wall that Ranma leaned against flipped backwards, sending him sliding headfirst out of the room, Akane was spun out of sight while the couch and the two sprites on it disappeared into the floor to be replaced by an empty couch seconds later. When the mat fell away beneath Mike he treaded air for a few seconds before dropping out of sight.

Kasumi looked at RyoGA. "Now we wait."

*****

In a hanger within the Principal Office four tubes descended one by one from the ceiling to deposit Ranma, Akane, Shampoo and Nabiki. The fifth tube didn't descend, instead dropping Mike the height of the hanger.

Ranma looked at the others and nodded. "Okay, lets do it!" He held his hands before him. "Primal Fury Mode!" Blue light exploded around him.

Akane mirrored Ranma's stance. "Vicious Raptor Mode!" Swirls of golden light built up around her.

Crouching low Shampoo gave the cry, "Speedy Feline Mode!" and was consumed by yellow light.

With a roll of her eyes Nabiki held up her arms as if they were wings. "Soaring Falcon Mode!" She vanished in a burst of brown energy.

"Self-absorbed Rodent Mode!" Mike announced distastefully, and disappear in a small grey explosion.

The five clouds of energy swirled and slowly coalesced into the forms of five large robots.

In the place of Ranma stood a large blue and silver robot. Its torso and limbs looked muscular, and the head appeared to be wearing a helmet with bars circling the mouth and a pair of antenna sticking up from domes covering the ears. Large flaps on the back were cover in what looked like a dark blue fur.

Next to it stood a decidedly reptilian humanoid robot almost as well built as its neighbour. Its face was designed to cause fear, with wicked red eyes and fanged teeth. Long fingers held a long sword made from a series of pyramids and a strange spinning shield-like device. Its colour scheme was a mix of browns and blues with gold trimming.

Shampoo had been replaced by a yellow and brown spotted humanoid cat robot. It was slightly smaller than the previous two, but was also sleeker and looked more innocent. In one hand it held a long spotted gun.

The fourth robot in the line-up was avian, and looked female. Her head was crowned by a beak and covered by a grey feathery texturemap. Small wings poked out the side from her back, and wise eyes gazed out at the world.

Last, and smallest, the robot on the end looked like a wise-ass. His arms and back were done in a dirty grey bitmap, while the rest of his body was metallic silver and gold. The face was very rodent like.

Ranma's robot turned to the others. "Nabiki, you and I will attack from the air, everyone else, tackle his legs."

"Right!"

"Prime jets on!" Ranma yelled, the rocket pack on the back of his robot exploded to life. He and Nabiki soared along the exit tunnel, the others running along behind them.

*****

Meanwhile Sasuke and Gosunkugi hovered like a pair of flies around Nullzilla.

"Do you see her?" Sasuke asked.

Gosunkugi slid right a bit then back. "Yeah, I think so." He leaned forward and promptly smashed into the monsters side when it moved.

As his partner dropped towards the ground Sasuke flew over to look. "Its not her!" he yelled and was slammed out of the air by Nullzilla's arm.

The crash of Sasuke hitting the ground echoed off the surrounding buildings. Moments later the two bots were flattened beneath Nullzilla's feet.

"I hate nulls," Gosunkugi commented.

*****

The five robots met up with Nullzilla deep in Kits sector. It was stumbling around near the housing area as sprites ran screaming on the ground.

"My house!" Ranma cried as the monster lumbered towards said building. "No one destroys my rooms!"

"Except Ranma himself," Nabiki added.

A pair of missile launchers unfolded from the back of Ranma's robot. "Prime missiles: launch!" Both missiles shot away and arced through the air to slam into the side of the monster. It reeled and turned to face them.

Akane, Shampoo and Mike all let loose with their long range weapons from the roofs of nearby buildings. Nullzilla headed towards them as Ranma and Nabiki continued to strafe the creature.

"Is no good," Shampoo announced. "Nullzilla just absorb attacks."

Ranma pulled up. "Shampoo's right. We've got to try something else."

"Didn't Kasumi say we could combine these mecha?" Akane asked.

Ranma's robot scratched its head. "I don't see how?"

"We were supposed to yell that special phrase," Nabiki supplied.

Ranma nodded. "Okay, lets try it."

The five bots jumped towards each other. "Beast Warriors, Maximise!"

A few seconds later a giant robot the size of Nullzilla stood on the streets of Mainframe. It was the combination of the five robots, but looked nothing like them, for one thing, it was much, much bigger.

"Neat," Ranma said with a whistle. The robot took a step forward then pitched wildly backwards. "Does anyone know how to drive this thing?"

"Oh great," Akane commented snidely, "maybe we should put out L plates."

Managing to get control of the robot, Ranma dashed forward and jumped to deliver a devastating leap kick to the robot, knocking it over onto the apartment building.

"No!" screamed Ranma. "I just redecorated."

"Shampoo no call that redecorating."

Nullzilla got back to its feet and replied with a punch.

Mike started commented as their robot was beaten. "Its a left, then a right, and a wicked uppercut..."

"MIKE!" the other four exclaimed.

Nullzilla knocked the robot to the ground then leapt over and body slammed it. The monster's fist raised, but the robot blocked it, and shoved the monster off.

"We need a weapon!" Nabiki yelled as the robot got to its feet.

"Use the matic!" urged Kasumi over the radio.

"What?" the defenders cried.

"The disruptomatic, use it!"

The robot patted itself down. "What disruptomatic?" Ranma asked.

"We don't have one!" added Akane.

"Err.. wait a sec." Back at the Principal office Kasumi touched a control on her desk console. The image on the screen changed to show a very large display case in the hanger bay. In one corner of the cover the words 'In case of Nullzilla break glass' could be seen and within the box was a massive axe, big enough to be held by the giant robot. "Oh my."

Ranma was relieved when the radio crackled to life. "I sent RyoGA with the disruptomatic!"

" did what?" Shampoo demanded.

"We're dead," Nabiki groaned.

But Ranma grinned. "Time for the Saotome desperation move!"

Nullzilla, still get to its feet was surprised when its opponent held up its hands in a T. "Time out!" Ranma yelled. "We need a break."

Much to everyone's surprise Nullzilla nodded and the pair settled down to wait.

*****

Time passed.

*****

The giant robot tapped its foot and glanced at its watch. "Where is that sprite?"

Meanwhile Nullzilla had taken out a paddle ball and was having fun batting it around. Strangely he was holding the ball, not the paddle.

*****

Time passed, but then that's its job.

*****

The robot and Nullzilla sat atop small buildings, a larger building between them. Both held a bunch of rectangles in their hands.

Nullzilla held up a hand and extended three fingers. The giant robot shook its head. "Go fish." Grumbling the monster reached out to take a card from the centre building.

*****

Time passed, illegally on the inside.

*****

The shape of the Disruptomatic could be seen soaring through the air towards the battlefield.

"About time," announced Ranma.

The giant robot stretched out its hand and the axe flew into it, connecting to the mecha with a satisfying clunk. Ranma leaned forward and touched the radio controls. "Where've you been dog boy?"

Akane malleted him. "Don't call him dog boy!"

"Shampoo agree, she never like that show."

The others gazed at the Amazon sprite. "Huh?"

Shaking his head Ranma turned back to the radio. "RyoGA, go long the corridor then take the arm elevator to level 27 and... why am I telling you this? You'll just get lost anyway."

Holding the axe in both hands the giant robot went into a ready stance. Nullzilla, realising the fight had resumed, dove forward to attack. The giant robot swung, and Nullzilla was cleaved in two by the mighty blade. Nulls poured like water from the monstrous form, splashing against the buildings before spreading out and disappearing back from whence they came.

The foot of the giant robot crashed down next to the prone form of Kodachi virus.

"We'd better get down there and see what's wrong with her," Ranma announced, getting out of his seat.

*****

Glitch's beeping didn't seem to disturb the unconscious virus. Cautiously Ranma creeped forward, keeping one eye on his keytool and the other on Kodachi.

"She seems normal, well as normal as Kodachi gets," he commented. "Whatever infected her seems to have gone."

Over the comlink Nabiki put voice to his unsaid thought. "Where?"

*****

Kuno walked into Nibbles play room. Supposedly his two hench bots were in here talking care of his pet, but the room was surprisingly empty. He paced over to the crib and smiled to see the null still in there.

The virus smiled "Ah, there you are, mother."

Above him a black spiral made of spheres burnt through the roof and floated silently down unnoticed. The first Kuno knew of its presence was when black tentacles wrapped themselves around him.

Wrestling with the creature, Kuno fell to the ground and Nibbles screeched as he battled. Silence descended as the null shot into the darkness. Kuno stood, but it was a different Kuno. His skin was jet black and his eyes glowed with malice.


	10. v 1,8,2

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.8.2 : Aloha!

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Ukyo: I travel the net,

Hacking systems for profit and fun.

My format: I have no format.

I am a rogue sprite,

Searching the net,

For home.

*****

The binome wore a hardhat and overalls. In the window Nabiki could see the destruction caused by the recent battle against Nullzilla behind him. "Clean up has begun ma'am. Reconstruction crews have moved in."

Nabiki nodded. "How are you moving the giant robot? I don't want any more damage to the system."

In the window the construction binome shifted nervously. "Ah, we have a problem there ma'am."

Mainframe's Indexer gave him a look that would've disassembled a quantum shake. "What?"

"It seems that Mike the TV, the game sprite and a couple of binomes took it on a joy ride."

"THEY WHAT?!" Nabiki paused for a second to massage her temples. "Never mind, I'm sure they'll turn up, even with RyoGA at the controls." She closed the window with a sigh.

*****

Kodachi groaned and shifted slightly, unconsciously showing off her lean form. Her bitmap was smooth and glossy black once more and the mask was an expression of peace.

Ranma knelt over the prone virus. "There doesn't seem to be any side effects to whatever it was," he said into his keytool.

"In other words, no leads," Kasumi commented.

"I'm not so sure. This thing went after a virus, it might do so again."

In Glitch's display Kasumi frowned in thought. "So you think it might go after--"

"Kuno..." Kodachi gasped faintly.

Ranma looked up in surprise. "That's right, how did you know?"

"No, KUNO!" She pointed past him.

"Huh?" He half turned, just in time to see the black arm crash into him. Ranma arched away as the Kuno stepped towards Kodachi. Mainframe's sword wielding virus was obviously not himself. Instead of dark blue his colour palette was jet black and his eyes, no longer lust obsessed pools, held an animal fury.

"NOOOOO!!!!" Kodachi shrieked as she was lifted from the ground. In a shower of sparks the blackened virus' arm started to fuse into her. Inhuman howls of pain tore from Kodachi's mouth.

"GLITCH, REPLUSOR!" An explosion of light separated the viruses, sending Kuno flying away. "Glitch, car!" The keytool flew off Ranma's arm as he dashed over to help Kodachi to her feet. "Come on, lets get out of here."

Kodachi nodded weakly as Ranma's car pulled up beside them. Like a gentleman, the Guardian helped the weakened mistress of mayhem into the passenger seat before vaulting over her into the driver's seat.

""Mach 5 or bust!" laughed Ranma as he put his foot to the floor. The car roared to life and zoomed up into the air above the system.

Once they were safely soaring above the city Ranma turned to Kodachi. "Ah, what happened back there? I mean, the two of you started to fuse, how is that possible?"

The virus clasped her hands before her. "Why Ranma darling, I thought you knew, he's my brother."

"YOUR BROTHER?!" The car dropped a few hundred pixels before Ranma managed to regain control. "That explains so much. What'll we get the two of you merge?"

"The next GENERATION!" Kodachi threw her head back and cackled.

Kodachi's mirth (and the stability of the car) were short lived as Kuno crashed onto the bonnet. The black virus hissed once at the surprised Guardian, then grabbed his sister and dropped off the hood.

"SPAM!" Ranma cried righting the car, then hit a button on his dashboard. "Kasumi... we have a problem!"

*****

Shampoo stormed through the corridors of the Principal Office and slammed open the door to the 's office. "Shampoo want know why Nekohanten closed!" she announced.

Kasumi answered with a smile. "Excuse me Shampoo, I'm busy, could it wait?"

Shampoo crossed her arms and glowered, but was only ignored by Kasumi. Settling down she noticed RyoGA standing in one corner. "Where game sprite been?"

"I got to this strange place with people wearing Icon's like Ranma's, but they didn't seem to like me, so I came back," RyoGA answered with a shrug.

Shampoo's jaw hit the ground. "Game sprite get to Supercomputer?! How?"

Before he could reply the two were interrupted by an exclamation from Kasumi. "THEY DID WHAT?!"

*****

Ranma shielded his eyes from the glare. "Kodachi and Kuno have merged," he repeated. "They seem to have formed some kind of energy sphere. I'm guessing the new virus is compiling inside." He glanced over from his car at the sphere in question and immediately covered his eyes as the multicoloured light stabbed at his eyes.

"What are you going to do?" Kasumi asked across the comlink.

"I'll approach, its possible they've formed a benign virus, or at least one with enough personality problems to be ineffective."

"All work and no play make Ranma random." Ranma could barely hear Shampoo's voice across the link.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," he shot back.

"Be careful Ranma," Kasumi added before closing the comm.

Boldly Ranma leapt from his car and strode across the road. "I am Ranma Saotome of Mainframe, Guardian Number 698. Identify your function and file name!"

In answer an object flew out of the sphere at the Guardian. Reflexively Ranma caught it and examined it. It was a ball of some kind, slightly oval, its outer skin covered in small fibres.

"Huh?" Ranma asked intelligently. The coconut exploded, throwing Ranma to the ground.

"ALOHA KEIKIS!" The voice forced Ranma to struggle to sit up. The colours had vanished, revealing perhaps the silliest virus the Guardian had ever seen. It was the same dark blue as Kuno and sat cross-legged in the air, strumming a white Ukelele. From the top of the virus' head grew a small golden palm tree.

"I am Da' Principal," the virus announced, pulling out a set of shears, "and you hav' a bad cut, brudda." Da Principal strode forward and grabbed the stunned Ranma by his pig-tail. "HAHAHAHA!!!"

A large red blur slammed into Da Principal's side, knocking Ranma out of his hands.

"That's one you owe me!" Akane cried from inside her Fuchikoma mecha.

Ranma struggled to his feet. "Call it even," he gasped, stumbling away.

Akane and her Red bug mecha faced off against the mega-virus. Da Principal raised his shears. "Bad wahine, no pets allowed on da school grounds."

"WHAT SCHOOL?!" Akane growled, urging the Fuchikoma to attack. Virus and mecha crashed together. For a few moments it looked like Mainframe's defender was getting the upper hand, unfortunately with the tortured cry the mecha's manipulator was sheared off.

"My ARM!" the Fuchikoma squeaked. "Better eject ma'am!" The pilot's hatch exploded, then Akane herself shot up and out.

Akane soared through the air and landed in the waiting arms of Ranma. "Let's get out of here!"

Mainframe's defender glared at him. "You seem to be saying that a lot, recently."

"Saotome secret technique," grinned Ranma.

The final tortured screams of the Fuchikoma interrupted them. Ranma threw out a zip-board and zoomed back into the sky, Akane following only seconds later.

Looking back Akane sniffed. "Poor Fuchikoma, I knew him well."

"You should take better care of your tools," Ranma commented, earning a glare from Akane. Ignoring her the Guardian touched Glitch. "Kasumi, we have an class 4 attribute shifter. I want you to shut down the system, that way it can't shift the buildings, just the sprites." He paused for a few seconds. "Yes, that's right, a full system shutdown." He touched the Keytool again. "Glitch, record and transmit net wide alert. This is Guardian 698 of Mainframe, we have a class 4 virus alert. Request any aid. End Transmission."

The system around the two flying sprites darkened. "Ah, Ranma.. if the system shutdowns, there won't be any power for the zip-boards."

"I know," Ranma replied as the zip-boards powered down and the pair coasted downwards. "We'll have to escape on foot."

*****

Nabiki stormed into the Principal Office. "Why is the system shutting down, AGAIN?!" she demanded.

Kasumi looked up from the core controls. "Ranma reports that Kuno and Kodachi have fused into a attribute shifting virus. We're locking down the system to restrict his access."

"Spam!" Nabiki swore. "Do we have any idea of its conditionals?"

"None."

"Excuse Shampoo," the cute sprite interrupted. "What attribute shifting virus?" Behind her RyoGA nodded.

The two Tendos shared a glance before the younger explained. "Its a virus which alters sprites and data objects to conform to a strict set of rules. They aren't very effective because the code resets itself after a few micros, but they can cause a lot of havoc. The greatest problem is thst unlike Kuno it can infect and control sprites without extracting a PID first, and the User knows what else."

"That bad, very bad."

*****

Ranma glanced at the useless zip-board then threw it away. The alley they had landed in dead ended not far away in a large graffiti covered wall. On either side of them heavy locked doors leading into tall buildings.

"Let's get out of here before..." Akane trailed off.

"'Fore what wahine?" the sent chills down the bitmaps of both sprite. Turning, they found the only exit to the alleyway blocked by the massive form of Da Principal.

"Glitch, tennis racket." Ranma's keytool shifted just in time for Ranma to parry another Coconut.

"Eh? Nice backhand dere brudda, but it won't protect ya from my shears!" Da Principal held up his wicked implement of hair removal in one hand. Ranma and Akane both gulped and started backing away.

For a brief instant a flash of light obscured Da Principals head, then the large virus fell forward to crash before them.

"Ya know Ranma honey, ya really shouldn't let yaself get backed into a corner." The two sprites looked up to find a familiar figure with flame red hair.

"UKYO!!" the pair cried.

"Let's get out of 'ere before big, dumb and ugly comes to." The hacker jerked her finger towards the virus, before she turned to run.

*****

Ranma looked down at the darkened city as it slid along beneath them. Ukyo's craft was a sleek metallic fighter craft, probably a design stolen from a game. Unlike all the other vehicles in the system the ship was still fully powered.

"This why you left?" the Guardian asked, turning to the sprite in the pilot's seat next to him.

Ukyo nodded. "Ya can only leave a ship like this lying around for so long before someone up and decides to take it."

Leaning forward, Akane poked her head between them. "Ego stroking aside, we have bigger problems!"

"She's right, make for the Principal Office, we can regroup there." Ranma reached for the ship's commlink. "I'll get Kasumi to open the shield for us."

*****

"ARE YOU RANDOM?!" Nabiki slammed her fists on either of the window. "I'm not willing to trust that hacker in here during an emergency of this magnitude."

"Spammit Nabiki, I've vouched for her, open the shield!"

"No way Ranma, she can drop you off and then circle, she's not--"

"Shield's down," Kasumi reported.

"--coming in... Did she just hack the shields?"

Ranma was shoved out of the way. "No sister dear," Akane smiled, "I opened them. Now want to guide us to a landing spot, or shall we just hover here for awhile."

Kasumi leaned across. "There's an empty space on parking level 4 section G."

"Section G?!" Ukyo complained in the background. "Does she realise how far we'll have to walk to the elevator?"

*****

Ignoring Nabiki's dark stares Ukyo, Akane and Ranma strode up to the small group clustered around the table. Somehow Shampoo had managed to keep RyoGA from wandering off, so the pair were joined the two Tendo sisters in waiting for them.

"We need a plan," Ranma stated, looking around the table. "Any ideas?"

"Why can't we just shot it?" RyoGA asked.

Kasumi shook her head. "Virus code has greater integrity than ordinary sprites. We'd need to channel a lot of power to destroy one, either the entire core, a game or maybe a tear..."

"... a tear," repeated Ranma, "the ultimate in random energy. If we could..."

"I could," Ukyo interjected, "but there ain't no way I can chorale a tear alone, I'll need a co-pilot Ran-chan." She smiled sweetly at him.

Ranma turned to Akane. "Think you can handle Ukyo's ship?"

"Sure."

"But Ran-chan..."

Ignoring Ukyo Ranma nodded. "Right, the two of you get going. I'll buy you the time, and see if we can't find a better way of dealing with this."

"But Ran-chan..." Ukyo whined again.

Akane grabbed her arm and started dragging her towards the door. "Come on, we've got a long way to go, and I'm not talking about flying to the energy sea."

"While those two are off playing tear jockey, we have to keep this virus busy," Ranma looked up at Kasumi. "I think I'd better raid the armoury again."

Nabiki reached out and grabbed Ranma's hand. "I want someone here to defend the Principal Office. With our data stores he can alter the entire system."

"RyoGA, Shampoo, your job."

"But that leave Ranma to fight virus alone," Shampoo pointed out.

"Hey, its my code."

*****

Akane sat in the co-pilot seat, leaning and twisted to stare as the city receded into the background. "Do you think he'll be alright?"

Next to her, manning the controls, Ukyo chuckled. "Honey, I've seen Ran-chan get out of tighter scraps than this with a lot less resources. He'll be fine, if we do our jobs."

Turning back Akane looked at her in confusion. "Huh? Oh, right." She reached for the panel before her. "Scanning for tears." For a few seconds she worked. "HEY! Who said I was talking about Ranma?!"

Ukyo laughed as the ship flew on.

*****

Her car was a nice new sport car, cherry red built to go, and as dead as the rest of the system. The binome hopped out and straightened her skin tight outfit. A chill ran up her back as a shadow loomed over her. She turned and gazed in fear up at the virus.

"Two demerits for being out of da uniform, sister." Da Principal exclaimed, grabbing the binome. Lightning crackled around her, and her clothes shifted from the latest fashion to a drab skirt and blouse, but she didn't care, it was the proper school uniform.

Da Principal put down his student. She glanced at her watch. "Waaah! I'm late for class!" she shrieked running off.

*****

The console before Akane beeped. "I've got a tear. Come about to 095 mark 25."

"Right." Under Ukyo's guidance the ship yawed right and zoomed upwards. Afterburners roared to life and the occupants were pressed into their chairs.

"Like acceleration, don't you," Akane gasped.

"Just trying to make up lost time honey," Ukyo returned with a smile. It didn't take long for the vessel to reach its objective, the shifting energy form of a tear in the interface.

With the flair of an expert pilot Ukyo skidded her ship so that the tear sat immediately behind it. "Akane honey, take the controls. Just keep 'er still while I rope this baby."

Akane grabbed the flight stick before her as Ukyo lifted herself from her seat. "Fine, just be careful."

"Ain't I always?" Ukyo strode out of the cockpit.

Thinking of the fight with Kodachi, Akane called: "NO!"

Shaking her head Ukyo looked at the tear before her. The ball of random energy crackled in the air, sending sparks and flares of light lashing through the air. She gripped the controls, lassoing something this unstable was dangerous at the best of times, and she was on a very short and unknown schedule.

*****

Floating point park looked very different in the dark. Normally Ranma would have thought romantic, but considering the monster stalking it, this was the worst place a couple could go for a walk. Kasumi's scanners had detected the viral energy there, and the only virus in the system was the Da Principal.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are," Ranma called, waving the rifle he'd retrieved from the armoury before him.

Laughter announced a presence behind him. "Ya think ya can defeat Da Principal alone brudda?"

Suddenly a pair of black robots appeared on either side of Ranma.

"He's not alone!" Sasuke declared in his squeaky voice.

"Yeah, we're a gang!" Gosunkugi added.

Ranma smiled. His day seemed to be looking up.

*****

The buoys surrounding the tear continued to rotate. To an untrained eye the movements seemed random, but Ukyo, skilled in such things, knew the patterns and when to launch a new buoy.

'Three to go,' Ukyo thought, 'and it only gets harder.' She jabbed the circle button on the pad and a another buoy ejected from the platform beneath her.

"Hurry it up Ukyo, we've got to get back before something happens!" Akane called from the cockpit.

Normally Ukyo would've shot off a reply, but a single distraction could erase all her work. A twitch of her finger launched the second to last buoy into place.

With only one link lift to be made in the net, Ukyo rock still, her body in a relaxed, yet ready state as the network of beams spun before her. The point approached, and suddenly the spin changed, taking it out of reach. 'Come on, just a little more.' The point twisted once more into sight, and as it passed Ukyo stabbed at the button on her pad. As final buoy clicked into place light flared, forcing Ukyo to close her eyes.

Opening them she looked up, and up, and up, then sighed in relief. The tear hovered quite happily in its cage above her, an energy rope attaching it to the ship. Then she realised. The flare had morphed her, she was a mouse.

"Ukyo, what's happened?" Akane called.

Quickly Ukyo dashed back toward the pilot's chair. As she jumped into the seat, her co-pilot double-taked.

"Is the tear safe?" Akane demanded. Ukyo did her best to nod, causing Akane to breathe out in relief. "Good, I'll get us back to Mainframe."

*****

Gosunkugi and Sasuke continued to fight Da Principal, dodging in and out and attacking past the thrown coconuts. Nodding Ranma turned away and lifted his arm.

"Okay Kasumi, we're keeping him busy, eject the sector," he said into Glitch.

"Doing so now," the reported.

There was a loud clunk and the sector started moving with a jerk that sent the three sprites and virus reeling. Ranma watched as the city shot away. Ranma smiled, with Floating Point so far from the rest of the system the virus would severely limited.

Gosunkugi's cry grabbed Ranma attention. The bot was held in the hands of the virus lightning playing about his body. Before the shocked eyes of Ranma and Sasuke, Gosunkugi's body started to shrink and become paler. Instead of the robots streamlined form Da Principal held the humanoid form of a pale grey youth with sunken eyes.

"Gosunkugi!" Sasuke wailed, then wound up his fist and smashed an Uppercut into Da Principal. The virus shot into the air and arced back towards Mainframe.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" roared Ranma, towering over the small bot. "WE WERE SUPPOSED TO KEEP HIM HERE!!"

"But he hurt Gosunkugi!" Sasuke whined.

"Uh, excuse me," Gosunkugi interjected. The other two turned to look at him. "Do either of you know where 1F is?"

*****

The access bridges to the Principal office were retracted within the glowing bubble of the forcefield. Nabiki paced the circumference scanning it with a small box, followed close behind by Shampoo.

"I suppose we should be glad its not an energy absorber," the Indexer commented, "then the shield would be useless, he could just drain it."

Shampoo scratched her head. "Why you telling Shampoo thing she already knows?"

"Who said I was telling you?" Nabiki asked with a shrug.

"Then who Mercenary Indexer talking to?"

"The readers."

Shampoo paused, confusion on her face. "What Indexer talking about?"

Before Nabiki could answer her PDA beeped. She quickly pulled it out. "Nabiki here."

Kasumi appeared on the screen. "Ranma reports that Da Principal is back in Mainframe. He'll probably head here now."

Tuning Nabiki spotted a large figure pull itself up onto the outer ring. "I can confirm that, he's arrived, but with the bridges up he'll have to spend a lot of time climbing."

"Well, there may be a problem there. According to Ranma he infected Gosunkugi, and if he's able to mimic attributes he may be able to..." as Kasumi talked Nabiki was surprised to see a massive pair of wings sprout from the back of Da Principal, "... fly."

Da Principal, borne aloft by his wings, flew the distance from the Principal office's outer ring to the force field. Reached out and gingerly touch the glowing barrier. In the blink of an eye the field vanished, to be replaced by a stone texture wall surrounding the sphere. Da Principal floated down to stand in the gate. "Schools in."

Shampoo pulled out her bonbori. "Not while Shampoo process."

Looking at the two female sprites Da Principal laughed. "You two wahines 'ave been very bad."

"Not yet we haven't," Nabiki shot back with a smirk. She put two finger between her lips and whistled loudly. Suddenly a red and yellow blur smashed into Da Principal. "Ah, the advantages of surprise."

Her smug smile vanished when Frisket was tossed aside. She glanced at Shampoo and the pair started backing away. "Did he zap him?"

"Shampoo not want to find out."

"Back foul fiend," Ranma cried as he dropped between the repeating pair and the virus.

"Ah, Ranma Saotome, you will get da buzz-cut."

Ranma raised his fist. "Not if I take you out first."

"If you strike me down, Guardian you will only make me more powerful!" Da Principal announced.

"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!!" Akane screamed as Ukyo's ship roared past. The tear snapped free and slammed into the massive virus. Inside the globe of crackling energy Da Principal stretched.

"Finish him!" Shampoo called.

Ranma threw out his arm. "Let's give then a really bad case of split personalities. Glitch, file splitter!" The keytool shot out and stretched out to surround the tear. The tear became a smooth globe filled with Da Principal's face. Glitch extended itself and the globe was split into three. The left one showed an enraged Kodachi, the right an angry Kuno, but the centre one was black. For a brief moment the three spheres just hovered there, then they shot into distant parts of the system.

"Three?" Ranma murmured.

"We win, we win!" Shampoo threw herself at Ranma, knocking him to the ground. "Virus gone and all good again!"

"Sha..." THACK! Akane's mallet slammed down on Ranma, silencing him.

"Just couldn't keep you hands off her, could you!"

Shampoo popped to her feet. "Defender girl no hit Ranma!"

A pair of purple hands extracted Ranma from the argument. "Ran-chan, we have a problem," Ukyo spoke in a hush.

Ranma's shoulders slumped "What now?"

"On ma way back to Mainframe I had to run a Guardian blockade. Ranma, they're trying to disconnect Mainframe from the net."

Ranma paled. "But they would only do that if..."

"... there's a web creature in Mainframe," she finished.

Silence fell as the arguement died. Nabiki, Akane and Shampoo stared in horror at the pair.

Ranma looked at each of them. "This is bad, very bad."


	11. v 1,8,3

Wild Boot

by David Farr

v 1.8.3 : SiB

Reboot and Ranma 1/2 are the property of Mainframe Entertainment and Rumiko Takahashi respectively and used here (respectfully) without permission.

*****

Nabiki: I run Mainframe.

My format: Indexer.

My code to collect and collate.

Business is data

And data is my business.

You want resources,

You talk to me.

*****

Baudway was the main street in Mainframe's Commercial district and home of the Baudway shopping mall, the bus depot, the time share market and, of course, the Nekohanten. Despite missing the owner and primary cook the restaurant continued to do its brisk trade as sprites from the surrounding buildings took lunch or coffee breaks and flocked to its doors. Thus it was to a busy street that Akane and her three CPUs descended.

Cars hovering along the road pulled to a stop as the group surrounded a sprite hole. Mainframe's defender scanned the area with a small tricorder.

"I've got readings," Akane announced. "You three open the hatch, I'll report in."

"Right!" The three CPUs chorused, then got to work.

Meanwhile Akane pulled out her PDA. "Ranma, I'm investigating some readings in the Baudway sewers."

The Guardian nodded. "Okay Akane, hold there and--"

"I can handle it!" Akane growled.

"Spam it, Akane wait for---"

With a quick motion she cut him off, closing the comlink. "Right, lets go!"

*****

"--back up," Ranma finished to the blank screen. He looked at the two CPUs hovering not far away on a zipboard. The group hovered in old man Pearson's junk yard, one of the best hiding spots in the system.

"Well, we'd better go check up on her," he sighed. The other two nodded. Turning his attention back to Glitch he opened another com. "Shampoo, Ukyo, bring your teams to Baudway, Akane thinks she might have something."

"And she's hurried on ahead, hasn't she Ran-chan?" Ukyo returned.

"I'm afraid so."

*****

Spots of light from their flashlights crawled along the curved walls. A sickly green sludge flowed beneath their zip-boards, thankfully only a trickle of the pipes true capacity.

"Is good place to hide," Shampoo commented. "Nobody in right mind come down here."

"Then just call us nobody," Ranma returned grimly.

RyoGA light crossed a form lying in the sludge, he immediately moved back. "What's that?"

"Akane!" Ranma exclaimed and shot forward. He skidded up to the girl lying face down in pipe, leaping from his zipboard to land at her side. As the others crowded around Ranma lifted Akane and turned her in his arms.

"Who-who's there?" Akane whimpered as the sprites around her stared in horror at her sightless white eyes.

*****

The binome stirred. Darkness surrounded him, but it wasn't ordinary darkness. No this was more than the mere absence of light, it clung to him, holding him still and weakening him. He wondered how long he could live in that inky black, and if he wanted to make the effort.

*****

The corridor outside the Principal Office infirmary was packed. Shampoo stood next to where Ukyo leant against the wall, both watching as Ranma paced back and forth before the door. RyoGA stood not far, just looking mournfully towards where the emergency crews had hustled the wounded Akane. Watching them all from a distance, arms crossed and a stony expression on her face, was Nabiki.

With a hiss the door slid open, causing everyone to turn. Kasumi looked around the group. "I've put her in a recompiler, she'll recover. Thankfully her blindness is temporary, but she'll be down for quite a while."

Ranma turned his gaze to his feet and slowly shook his head. "That's good," he murmured.

"Shampoo want know, why creature not take her like binomes?"

Ranma glared at her, but Ukyo answered. "Who knows sugah, web creatures are too alien for us to understand. She might have been a warning or maybe it just missed her somehow."

Ranma's fists balled at his side. "We've got to find it, and totally purge it from the system."

Ukyo nodded. "And not just for revenge Ran-chan. If that thing makes it back to the web it'll bring back a whole brood of its pals. Mainframe has gotta look like a darn good nesting place."

"Ranma," Kasumi spoke in a whisper, a comforting hand on his shoulder, "she asked for you."

"M-me? Ah, thanks." He slid past the and through the infirmary doors.

Large shapes loomed in the gloom of the infirmary. The rooms light panels glowed softly, leaving deep shadows haunting the corners. Quietly Ranma shuffled across the floor to the single occupied bed. Akane lay there, as still as the processless. A silver metal visors hugged her eyes, sealing them from the gloom. Other small device sat attached about her damaged bitmap, working on restoring her functionality.

Sensing his presence, Akane twitched. "Who's there?" she rasped quietly, fear in her voice.

"It's me Akane, Ranma." His voice was soft, barely more than a whisper.

"You must think me pretty basic," Akane wheezed, "rushing in like that."

Ranma smiled faintly and shook his head. "Nah, I can understand it."

"Yeah, right." Akane broke down into a coughing fit. Despite the shudders running through her body, her arms remained relaxed by her side.

"What's the matter? Why can't you move?"

Akane smiled weakly. "Don't worry, Kasumi immobilised me so I could heal properly."

Ranma sighed in relief. "Well you just get better so you can watch over the rest of us when we get back from fighting this thing."

Akane's smile brightened. "That's a deal."

The pair lapsed into silence. "Akane, you know how I call you a Guardian-wannabe," Ranma asked thoughtfully

Unnoticed by Ranma the defender's smile stiffened. "Yeah."

"Do you?"

Again silence descended. "Once" she whispered barely. "Back before mum..." she trailed off. "Anyway, I couldn't leave, couldn't go to the supercomputer, so I had to make do with Defender."

Ranma stood in silence for a few seconds. "There is another way, you won't have to leave Mainframe for long, but its harder. Pop trained me himself, apart from some of the theory. I only had to go to the Supercomputer to prove myself worthy of the title Guardian."

"Wha- cough cough What are you saying?"

Ranma breathed a singe deep breath. "I can give you a field commission, train you here in Mainframe. The only problem will be that you'll really have to impress the Guardian council, more than any academy graduate." He fell quiet.

The silence grew longer. "Why do this for me?"

"'Cause you've got what it takes, if you can learn how to do it right." The corner of his mouth twitched into a smile. "Plus I know you'll never abandon Mainframe to fulfil your own dream, and that's the ultimate test of a Guardian."

Akane sniffed. "Thanks Ranma."

Ranma looked down at Akane's chest. "Can I take your Icon for a moment?"

"Ah... yeah," Akane replied cautiously.

Ranma lightly touched the white and black disc with his left hand and lifted it. With his right hand he removed his own Icon. He held them apart, undersides facing. "Download Guardian protocols, version one." Light flashed in the darkness as a beam jumped between the two Icons. Moments later Ranma replaced his own Icon then reverently placed Akane's now Gold and Black dome on her breast.

"Ranma, I can feel it!" Akane exclaimed, strength back in her voice.

Ranma chuckled. "There are advantages to being a Guardian. You get better and when things settle down I'll take you to the Supercomputer to register you with the collective."

"Thank you, Ranma."

"You're welcome." He turned. "Be back soon." He hurried off into the darkness. The door slid open, letting the Guardian exit.

*****

Kasumi stepped into the small room and turned to face the four following her as they crowded in. "Nobody knows about this place, not even Akane and certainly not Nabiki, and that's the way it stays, understand?"

"What talking about?" Shampoo inquired, her brow furrowed. Ranma, Ukyo and RyoGA looked similarly confused.

"That!" she pointed past them.

The four defender's turned to find, not the corridor they had just left, but a large well lit hall. Desks lined the walls as far as the halfway point, where a single room stood atop a pillar. Catwalks hung in air, giving both access to the suspended office and a place for various guard binomes to stand watching the area below.

And below needed watching. While both the guards and the sprites manning the desks were nothing more than binomes wearing black suits, the sprites being served at the desk were stranger than anything even the netwise Ukyo and Ranma had seen. Standing there, talking calmly to the binomes were alien sprites from distant parts of the net, some insect like, others little more than random lines and one looking like a floating tear.

"Kasumi, what is this place?" Ranma asked, staring around at the sights.

"Ranma, I know you're a Guardian, but I need you to promise not to tell anyone about this, anyone at all."

Ranma turned to her, frowning. "I'm not going to let my honour be compromised. You start explaining, and I'll stop you when you reach something I don't like. Until that point, you have my word." The others nodded their agreement.

"I can accept that." She walked through them and looked out across the room. "Mainframe is an isolated system, we don't get much in the way of net based scrutiny, which was perfect for many of the sprites in the net. It was father's idea to formalise the process," she quietened and bowed her head, "before mother's deletion," she shook herself slightly. "We don't allow any hunted criminals, only political refugees or those who simply want to vanish from net life. We disguise them, give them a new life here and protect their privacy."

"Kasumi, honey, you must get sprites that abuse your courtesy," Ukyo pointed out.

"Yes," Kasumi started walking. "This place serves as both a welcoming hall and as our monitoring base. Normally we don't act unless we have to, mainly because we don't want to scare the sprites of Mainframe, but we can bring a lot of force to bear."

"Shampoo want know why not just send them out after web creature?"

"Because its beyond our scope," Kasumi replied. "We never planned for a web creature, so while we have the hardware, no one here has the skill to hunt it down." The group passed the pillar at the centre of the room, beyond were more desks, this time set out in an office layout. Binomes in black suits sat working at the computers. "I'm hoping you four will join this group and help us defeat this monster. We'll equip you, but we can't support you."

Ranma looked around the others. "We accept Kasumi."

The beamed. "Ladies, gentlemen, welcome to the SiB, the Sprites in Black. There are changing rooms over there," she indicated and pair of doors on one wall, "you'll find Icon writers in there with data on some special protective clothes. Meet me in my office." She indicated the room atop the pillar above them.

The group nodded and headed off, Ranma grabbing RyoGA and redirecting him into the men's changing room.

*****

K sat behind her desk. The room was dark, she liked it that way, it added mood. She picked up the file folder before her and thumbed through the documents. Standard reports, what was happening with the various aliens in the system, new arrivals and a few departures.

The large blast doors that served as an entrance clunked and then groaned opened revealing the four newest SiB agents. All four had changed into their white shirts, black jacket, black ties, black trousers, black socks and black shoes.

Agent R stood in the lead, his shades hanging from the pocket that held his gold and black Icon. Beside him stood Agent U, her uniform complimented by the massive spatula strapped to her back. The game sprite, Agent G stood impassively behind R.

Finally there was Agent S. She took out her sunglasses and with one hand slipped them on. "S make this stuff look good." She blinked. "Why S refer to herself as S?"

"Sympathetic resonance," R replied, sliding into one of the chairs before K.

S turned to U. "What he say?"

"We appear to be something, so we act like It. Has to do with tributes." She calmly took a seat next to R.

G found himself trapped beneath S's gazed. "What she say?"

G shrugged. "I understood less of that than you." He took the seat next to U, leaving S the other chair next to R.

"Glad to have you aboard," K's smile beamed. "You already know your mission, so I can skip straight to your equipment." She touched a button under her desk, and the entire surface of the table flipped, revealing a compartment full of gleaming silver weapons.

The SiB leader walked around the table. "U, I know how much you like your signature weapon," she gripped a large gleaming spatula in amongst the weapons, and lifted it to the hacker, "I believe you'll find the Reverberating Spatulator more useful in combating this creature."

U took the giant technological kitchen implement, her eyes sparkling. "Thank you."

Next K picked up a long rifle with a bulky barrel and passed it to R. "This is the Core-Line XT, It can fire as much energy as some ancient systems could generate, be careful where you point it."

R took the weapon and looked it over. Satisfied he slung it over his shoulder, then nodded his thanks.

The third weapon K took from the armoury looked like a rounded silver Uzi, but instead of the magazine at the front a canister of blue energy hung under the barrel. "This is the Series Four Nullifer," she said, passing it to S, "it will nullify anything you point it at. Use it sparingly, it can take out walls."

Much to the others astonishment S's face broke into a huge smile and she cradled the weapon. "S thanks you, she be careful."

Finally K picked up a small weapon. It easily fitted into the palm of her hand, and looked like a tiny toy with a needle pointing out the end. "G, this is the Noisy Null, the final word in small arms."

G took the small gun and stared at it in dismay. He pocketed the weapon, then looked at the others.

K turned to the armoury once more and picked up two objects. Neither looked like weapons, one was a cylinder, a series of dials inlaid at one end, the other a small box. "These are the RAM Blocker," she handed the cylinder to U, "and an advanced scanner, it should be more powerful, although more focused than Glitch," she handed the box to R. "U, that RAM blocker will allow you to erase the memories of aliens from the sprites of the system."

"IT WHAT?!" R growled.

K's calm gaze stared down the angry Guardian. "Normally I wouldn't allow it, but I don't want a panic on my hands. This is safest for those we're protecting, both our alien visitors and the locals."

R settled down. "You're the I suppose. Okay, I'll go along with it, just never use it on me."

"Agreed," K nodded. "Your shades will protect you from all forms of flash attacks, including the RAM blocker, so you won't end up blind like Akane."

R lifted himself to his feet. "Right, let's go."

*****

The humming of the zip-boards were the only sound in the superstructure beneath Mainframe. Cautiously the four SiB advanced along the tunnels, there flashlight beams reaching into every nook and cranny.

"This is where we found Akane," U pointed out, her light hovering on the energy sludge ahead. "Where's the creature?"

R nodded and pulled the small box from his jacket. "Hopefully K's scanner will be able to shed some light on the matter." The device immediately squawked and started emitting a constant beeping. "This way," R announced and glided off down the pipes.

The others followed him through dark pipes and massive caverns. Sights unseen by the eyes of sprites went unnoticed by R as he continued his relentless pursuit. S and U were forced to keep a close eye on both of their male companions, to make sure R didn't lose them or G didn't lose himself.

Finally R came to a stop and shut off the box. "We've arrived," he stated, unslinging and cocking his rifle.

The other three SiB pulled out their weapons, and nodded to their leader. They were ready for whatever came next.

Moving to the end of the tunnel R, U, S and G gazed out into the room beyond. It was large, the floor littered with boxes and light fittings hanging precariously from the walls. Looking up the four found, hanging from the roof were a dozen slimy black pods. Inside the pods, dimly backlit, they could see the forms of binomes and sprites.

"Violent defender's CPUs," S whispered.

"Plus others," R added, flying slowly into the room. "K's people must be very good at suppressing information if this many Sprites have gone missing without comment."

"Makes you wonder, doesn't it." U drifted up after R. "Do we free them?"

R stared thoughtfully up at them. "No, we call in K. If we free them now, we'll just warn the web creature." He held up his arm. "Glitch, drop a marker for SiB clean up to follow." The keytool shifted slightly and shot out a glowing green pyramid that floated in the air. "Good, now we--"

A screech cut R off. The four sprites turned to see the dark shape of the web creature shoot from a hole in the wall. G acted first, bringing his Noisy Null to bear on the creature. The screeching of a tortured null filled the room, then all hell broke loose.

First there was a large boom as G released the trigger, then recoil from the weapon threw the sprite from his zipboard. Unfortunately the blast missed the creature and vaporised the wall beyond it.

By this time S had pulled out her Nullifier and turned to face the creature, just in time to be struck by a flying game sprite. The Series 4 Nullifer spat out a cloud of green vapour, straight up. Thankfully it struck one of the few empty sections of the ceiling, eating away the material and revealing the dark purple sky of Mainframe. Seizing a chance to escape the Web Creature soared out through the hole.

"SPAM!" R swore. "A GAME!" He zoomed out of the hole in close pursuit. U shot up after him, S dragging G close behind.

"What wrong?!" S demanded, panting as she pulled up next to U.

"That things an energy eater! And probably a portal spawner to boot."

"So?!"

U shot her a glance. "A game is nothing but energy!"

"That bad, very bad."

"That honey, is an understatement."

*****

Akane stepped into the Principal Office control room. Bandages wrapped around her arms and torso, but her eyes were clear and their usual brown. She frowned as she watched her two sisters busily working at the panels.

"What's happening?" she demanded, pacing up to them.

Kasumi, looked up. "Akane, you shouldn't be up yet."

"I'm fine," she snapped. "What's happening?"

"Ranma and the others have just chased the web creature into a game," Nabiki answered without looking up.

Akane looked at her for a second. "Okay, get all the emergency vehicles into the surrounding sectors." She turned and headed towards the door. "Have all the CPUs ready to scramble and get me a driver." The door hissed shut behind her.

"Oh my!" Kasumi exclaimed suddenly, a hand flying to her mouth.

Nabiki looked at her. "What?"

"Her Icon, it was black and gold."

Nabiki's eyes went wide in shock.

*****

Their zip-boards vanished as the game data overwrote system reality, forcing the four sprites to freefall for a few seconds. Ranma dropped to the ground, rolling through the slime then leaping to his feet. Beside him Ukyo dropped to her knees, her spatula drawn. Shampoo and RyoGA splashed down behind them into a pile.

"Game sprite get off Shampoo!" the cute sprite complained.

"Hush!" Ranma snapped, looking around them.

The immediate game surroundings took the form of a dingy corridor. Slime trailed down over lumps and bumps in the walls to join the creak of goo flowing past their feet. Ukyo looked closer at the wall and immediately felt sick, they were constructed from the body parts of sprites. Faces stared out in an endless scream, while arms grasped out at those walking past.

"Game remind Game sprite of home?" Shampoo asked, glaring at RyoGA

"No, this is much weirder than my game."

"Disgusting too," Ranma commented. "I wonder what the User sees in this junk?"

"We have bigger things to worry about sugahs," Ukyo reminded them, "there's a web creature in here and we 'ave to delete it."

Once more Ranma produced the SiB scanner.

*****

High within the lofty heights of the Silicon Tor Kuno sat upon his throne gazing into the darkness. Gosunkugi and Sasuke rolled up to his sides. The shorter of the two offered a sparking cup to their master.

"I held ultimate power within my grasp," Kuno murmured.

"No lord Kuno," Sasuke told him, "that was not you."

"And you two helped stop me!"

Gosunkugi shook his domed head. "No sir, we rescued you from the Da Principal!"

"FOOLS! I could have had both Akane Tendo and the pig-tailed Guardian."

"But sir!" both bots wailed.

Suddenly a vid window popped into existence before them, one of Kuno's viral binomes staring out. "Lord Kuno, we have detected much activity in the system. The Defender has moved most of the CPUs to surround the game!"

Kuno stood and towered over the window. "What of Ranma?"

"He and his three friends are in the game."

"Prepare the ABCs, we can take advantage of this."

*****

The Spatulator hummed as Ukyo swung it, striking out at the game sprites. It struck freezing the game sprite, which moments later shattered into a thousand bits.

"I like this weapon," Ukyo commented, dodging a clumsy attack from a gore dripping zombie.

Shampoo's Nullifer sent a cloud of green gas ripping through a pack of enemies, turning then into small energy eating nulls. "We no have time to deal with this."

RyoGA punched a skeleton, then reached over his shoulder and pulled his sword from the handle of his umbrella. "Well, getting out of this battle might be a little hard."

A devastating punch sent Ranma's opponent flipping back. "I've got a solution." He unslung his rifle and fiddled with the controls. "Get back." The other three stared at him in surprise for a second, then leapt back. Ranma pulled the trigger and the Core-line XT hummed to life. A thunderous detonation accompanied the blinding light as the weapon discharged.

"Ranma-honey, ya think that maybe that was a wee bit excessive?" Ukyo said, blinking to get her sight back.

Shampoo, first to regain the ability to see looked around. There was no sign of the zombies, but there was also a large hole through the wall. Purple energy crackled about the missing section. "Rifle is very powerful, Shampoo hope that highest setting."

"Nope, not by half," Ranma returned, checking the weapon.

"THERE IT IS!" RyoGA cried, pointing through the hole.

Beyond the wall the four sprites could see the large scaled form of the web creature. No longer was it the small spiral Mike had described, nor the small creature they had glimpsed in beneath the city. Instead a creature bigger than all four sprites together, black scales covering its hides. Within massive fangs it held a weakly struggling game sprite.

A blast of light and a cloud of green rocketed towards the creature, barely missing it. The creature raced away, screeching, as another piece of game scenery vanished.

"AFTER IT!" Ranma yelled, diving through the hole in wall, then disappearing down the corridor after it.

"He's going to get us deleted," RyoGA commented diving through behind Shampoo and Ukyo.

The creature bobbed and weaved through the twisting corridors of the game, shredding game sprites and scenery as it went. Bits of sprite flew past Ranma as he chased it, forcing him to abandon his rifle to deflect them.

Finally the chase ended as the creature burst into a massive coliseum. The creature arced up and circled around the painted sky.

"Now its just you and me!" Ranma sneered, readying his rifle. The creature cried and looped around to zoom down towards Ranma. Ranma's gun discharged again, missing wildly and leaving a glowing purple hole in the sky, the creatures raced towards him, bearing down like death itself.

Light flashed off a projectile as it shot past the creatures snout, forcing it to veer off. "Not just you Ranma-honey," Ukyo cried from another level of the coliseum. "Ya got me." She pulled out another brace of throwing Spatulas.

Another figure stepped out of the shadows opposite Ukyo. "Shampoo here too." She drew a bead on the creature with her nullifer.

"Yeah, we can't let you have the all the honour of taking this thing down!" RyoGA announced, stepping out opposite Ranma to complete the diamond. He held the noisy null in his hand and stood braced, ready for the recoil.

Ranma grinned. "Its nice to know I have friends. Okay everyone on three!" he called as he turned down the settings on his gun.

"THREE!" all four sprites shouted, letting loose with their weapons. Kitchen utensils, beams of light, green gas and invisible blasts of force shot through space. The creature, unable to dodge the massive volley took it square and plummeted to the earth.

"Cease fire!" Ranma shouted, and silence descended on the coliseum. The hulk of the web creature lay still in the centre of the arena, oozing the energy stolen from sprites. Ranma glanced at the scanner. "It's dead!" he cried happily, walking towards the creature.

Ukyo and Shampoo jumped down from the upper levels as Ranma and RyoGA moved to meet in the middle.

"If creature gone, we best get to winning game," Shampoo commented, "then we go back and process happily ever after."

Glitch's bleeping grabbed Ranma's attention. "What?" he raised the keytool to look at it.

"Game over," the soft voice of the system announced. The other three sprites looked at the Guardian who was staring in pure horror at his keytool.

"Ran-chan, no..." Ukyo whispered, her spatula slipping from her hand as the scenery dissolved.

*****

"Game over."

Akane took her eyes off the game cube to look at the driver next to her. "Send a signal, I want all crews in the moment--"

"User wins."

*****

"User wins."

In the Silicon Tor Kuno gloated. "Yes, at last I am rid of that meddling Guardian!" the dark blue virus threw his head back and laughed deeply.

*****

"User wins."

A black hand touched the image in the mirror. "Oh my darling Ranma," Kodachi, virus of Lost Angles, said sadly.

*****

The cell was dark, nulls huddled in darkness. On the only bed a large man in shredded blue armour slept. His snoring filled the room, but for a moment the rhythm and the man tossed. "Ranma," he murmured, then dropped back into slumber.

*****

A single glowing bulb cast light around the table. Around the table stood a varied collection of sprites. At its head stood a proud woman who carried a long wrapped package resting on her shoulder.

"Our only hope is to get to a node and..." her voice trailed off and gaze became unfocused.

One of the others reached out a tentacle and gently held her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

The woman shook her head to clear it. "I just felt a chill. Where was I?"

*****

"User wins."

Nabiki and Kasumi stared at each other. Neither said a word, but both knew that their faces mirrored the other's despair.

*****

"User wins."

Akane stared in disbelief at the huge purple cube sitting in the middle of the city escape. Vehicles hovered about it, waiting for something that wasn't going to happen. Time slowed as the game seemed to gather together. The normally quick motion of the cube shooting into the sky took nanos in Akane's eyes, but all too soon she was left staring at the empty hole that had once been a sector of Mainframe.

"Ranma, no," she whispered. "RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! !!!!!"

*****

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